Holiday Sales Grew 4% to Top $994 Billion, Exceeding Expectations

Bearing out earlier reports of solid sales increases during the 2024 holiday season, U.S. Census Bureau data revealed that core retail sales increased by an unexpectedly robust 4% over 2023 to a record $994.1 billion, topping the National Retail Federation (NRF)’s forecast of 2.5% to 3.5% growth. Full-year 2024 retail sales also showed healthy growth of 3.6% over the previous year, reaching a record $5.28 trillion.

“Consumers came out to spend this holiday season and clearly underscored the solid growth in the U.S. economy,” said Jack Kleinhenz, Chief Economist at the NRF in a statement. “The spending pace was back to pre-pandemic growth and indicates a good start for the year ahead.

“While the shorter holiday shopping calendar likely influenced the continued trend of more online shopping, there was also a return to in-person shopping experiences and a focus on early buying,” Kleinhenz added. “The 2024 figures were driven in part by lower inflation compared with 2023, particularly for goods. Even though consumers are still relatively healthy and there was a notable increase in spending, they remain budget conscious.”

Ecommerce, Home Furnishings Show Strong Growth

Online and other non-store sales grew 8.6% compared to the previous year’s holiday season, which the NRF defines as Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, reaching $296.7 billion, in line with the NRF’s estimates. Several product categories also registered increases on an unadjusted year-over-year basis including:

• Furniture and home furnishings: up 5.6%
• Electronics and appliances: up 3.7%
• Health and personal care: up 3%
• Clothing and accessories: up 2.8%
• General merchandise: up 2.4%
• Grocery and beverage: up 2.1%
• Building materials and garden supply stores: unchanged
• Sporting goods: unchanged