We likely won’t know the final bottom line on Christmas 2017 for a couple of days, because the post-Christmas boom, getting bigger seemingly every year, gets added into the final tally by most researchers. Nevertheless, all indications have been pointing to not only a very green holiday season, but perhaps a record setting one as well.
The first numbers reported through Christmas showed a record $598-billion dollars in total retail sales for the season, an increase of more than $30-billion dollars more than a year ago.
Craig Johnson owns and operates Customer Growth Partners, a firm that analyzes retail America on multiple fronts. He was quoted right after Christmas as saying, “This is literally the best season since before the recession.” He added, “The single biggest driver of retail sales is growth in real disposable income, and when real income goes up, people have money in their pocket and they’re able to spend it.”
The amazing run up on Wall Street helped buoy many people’s spirits and when you couple that with low unemployment numbers almost across the board, it made for a solid holiday shopping season in most quarters.
Additionally, consumer confidence was riding along at the highest rate in more than 17-years and with all the talk about impending tax cuts in the days leading up to Christmas, people were clearly in a spending mood this year.
The party continued over the past week, too, as those bearing gift cards helped rack up increased sales because those numbers don’t get counted until the cards are redeemed. Then too, there are those who exchange items for things more expensive and do additional shopping after Christmas to cash in on increased bargains, or spend cash gifts garnered during the holiday.
Other strong indicators of the season came from shippers like UPS who was forced increase support services from office teams to help buttress the need for additional drivers to get everything delivered in a timely manner.
Customer Growth Partners chief Craig Johnson says additional delivery teams were needed due to the huge spike in online sales. He says, “FedEx, UPS and the Postal Service have all seen record volumes.” Johnson says that the fact that so many retailers large and small shared in the big holiday boom that he’s predicting a sustained retail rebound for the New Year as well.
Johnson told executives from Advertising Age Magazine that once the final tally is logged, the holiday shopping season may well top $671-billion, which would be a robust 5.5-percent hike over the same period a year ago.
Another side bar effect of the booming sales this Christmas season was the increased share prices of many retailers on Wall Street following the good news of the season. Stay tuned for additional good news from the retail front as the New Year gets underway in earnest.
