MasterCard: Holiday Sales See Minor YOY Growth

New data from MasterCard SpendingPulse finds that holiday season retail sales grew 2.3 percent in 2013, Reuters reported on December 23.

Notably, the report found that jewelry and apparel sales saw the most growth, while luxury and electronics purchases largely remained flat year-over-year.

“Having six fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well as bad weather in some parts of the country for the final two weekends of the season clearly had an effect on sales,” Sarah Quinlan, MasterCard Advisors’ vice president of market insights, said in a statement. “Yet holiday sales were a clear improvement over last year’s weaker numbers.”

A separate report from ShopperTrak revealed that this increase was largely driven by a 37 percent increase in online sales over the final weekend before the holidays, AllThingsD reported. This uptick may have helped offset the 3.1 percent decline in in-store spending and 21 percent plunge in foot traffic also observed by the report.

For a look back at MasterCard’s predictions for retail, apparel and luxury spending heading into the holiday season, read our full report here.

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