Mastercard: Holiday Gifts and Get-Togethers Drove Retail Sales in December

Consumers boosted their spending on goods other than vehicles during the holidays.

Mastercard SpendingPulse found that U.S. retail sales excluding automotive rose 7.4% year-over-year in December. This figure reflects nominal spending, is not adjusted for inflation and includes all forms of payment, Mastercard said in a Monday (Jan. 16) press release.

The company attributed the increase to consumers shopping for gifts and traveling for holiday gatherings during the month, as evidenced by its findings that retail spending at restaurants leapt 14.5%, fuel and convenience surged 11.9% and apparel grew 5.4%, according to the press release.

Both online and in-store retail sales were up, with eCommerce seeing a 9.7% increase and in-store recording 6.7% growth, the release said.

An earlier Mastercard SpendingPulse report that covered the holiday shopping season from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 found that inflation changed the ways Americans did their holiday shopping in 2022.

“This holiday retail season looked different than years past,” Steve Sadove, senior advisor for Mastercard and former CEO and chairman of Saks Incorporated, said Dec. 26. “Retailers discounted heavily but consumers diversified their holiday spending to accommodate rising prices and an appetite for experiences and festive gatherings post-pandemic.”

Similarly, a PYMNTS survey of about 2,500 U.S. consumers found that inflation-ravaged shoppers sought value from all quarters to get the most from their dollars this holiday season.

Seeking bargains, two-thirds of holiday shoppers made at least one holiday purchase on Black Friday 2022, up 3% more than in 2021, according to “Black Friday 2022: High Prices Reshape Holiday Shopping Habits.”

PYMNTS research in December found half the consumers surveyed said they were cutting back on holiday spending for financial reasons, and some said they would not shop at all.

But of those consumers who did shop, about half planned to pay for their purchases using credit cards, loans, or buy now, pay later (BNPL) options. That means about 98 million U.S. consumers planned to pay for at least one holiday purchase using one of those options.