NRF Says Vaccine Availability Will Boost Economy

The National Retail Foundation (NRF) said it expects that the vaccine rollouts will continue to help boost retail sales and the economy, according to a press release.

Sales will grow between 6.5 percent and 8.2 percent to over $4.33 trillion this year, the release stated.

“Despite the continuing health and economic challenges COVID-19 presents, we are very optimistic that healthy consumer fundamentals, pent-up demand and widespread distribution of the vaccine will generate increased economic growth, retail sales and consumer spending,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said in the release.

He added that the pandemic has seen retailers going “above and beyond” in implementing safety guidelines to help customers and retailers have been “increasingly engaged” with various localized governments to help distribute and administer the vaccine.

Retail sales in 2020, according to early results, grew 6.7 percent over 2019 to $4.06 trillion, which the release stated was nearly double the NRF forecast of 3.5 percent growth. The old forecast didn’t account for the arrival of a global pandemic, either. Online and non-store sales, bolstered by the new reliance on eCommerce, jumped to 21.9 percent of the total, sitting at $969.4 billion.

A big part of these totals was the November and December holiday season, which saw almost one-fifth of the total annual retail sales, according to the release. The sales during that time grew 8 percent, which the release called “unexpectedly high.” Non-store and online sales comprised $206.9 billion of total sales, a 22.6 percent uptick from the previous year.

The NRF also expects the economy to add thousands of jobs this year, with potential numbers between 220,000 and 300,000 per month depending on the pace of the overall economy, according to the release.

Retail sales were up 5.3 percent in January, according to PYMNTS, with the boost possibly tied to many Americans receiving $600 stimulus payments not long before. However, the increase might have been short-lived, as that could have been the whole impact of the stimulus.