The NPD Group reported U.S. discretionary general merchandise dollar sales fell year over year by more than 2% during Cyber Week (the week ending December 3) and 5% the following week.
NPD cited its U.S. retailer point-of-sale information in noting fourth-quarter retail dollar and unit sales through December 10 are down 6% and 10%, respectively, versus comparable 2021 results.
Marshal Cohen, chief retail industry advisor for NPD, said, “With just weeks to go in the holiday shopping season, momentum and the urgency to shop is still missing, as the consumer’s need to prioritize higher-priced food is impeding discretionary spending.”
Discretionary spending continues to exceed pre-pandemic results, according to NPD, even as the current economic conditions have made it increasingly difficult to meet the elevated spending levels of the past two years. The final three weeks of 2022 will need to outperform last year by 5% for fourth-quarter 2022 sales revenue to break even with last year, according to NPD.
Ahead of this holiday shopping season, 4% of consumers surveyed by NPD said they planned to wait until late in the season to begin their holiday shopping, and 8% identified the week before Christmas as the period during which they expected the best deals.
“Retailers and manufacturers should be prepared for the trend of spread-out sales to continue through the end of the season, with an early Super Saturday followed by nearly a full week of shopping days,” Cohen said. “Consumers have become accustomed to the frequent discounts they’ve enjoyed since October, so deeper discounts are now necessary to incentivize spending in these final holiday weeks, particularly among the last-minute shoppers.”
