At least 35 billion dollars. This is the still provisional balance sheet of the five days of the start of the sales season in the United States during the end-of-year holidays, between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday via Black Friday. A launch that highlighted the support ensured today by online sales to the entire retail sector. Internet purchases have set new records, up at least 3% from last year, offering a sigh of relief without being able to exorcise the pressures on consumers and companies and the shadows of recession.
11.6 billion on Cyber Monday
Let’s see the data, courtesy of Adobe. Cyber Monday, dedicated in particular to digital promotions, raked in $11.6 billion in the country according to initial estimates. For its part, Black Friday set a new absolute online record of 9.12 billion, up 2.3% on 2021, half thanks to orders from smartphones and mobile devices. This followed sales that kicked off on Thanksgiving Thursday of $5.29 billion, up 2.9 percent. Over 9.5 billion would then have totaled online sales between Saturday and Sunday.
Sales in less brilliant physical stores
Sales in physical stores have in turn recorded increases, with consumer “traffic” increasing by at least 2.9% (and up to 7% according to some observers). But the so-called “in store” sales seemed less energetic, with fewer queues at the retailers. If in all about 166 million Americans have made purchases, two-thirds still physically going to the points of sale, it was the digital frontier that dominated the attention.
They worry about debt and trust
The growth, supported in particular by electronics and games which have experienced increases of more than 200%, has actually been taken overall by analysts with caution. Part, a significant part, is linked not to increases in purchases (the number of items has indeed decreased) but to price increases, to inflation still close to its 40-year high, even if it has dropped slightly in the last month. The mountain of American debt is worrying: flexible payment options have depopulated, in particular deferred and installments, increased by 78% in the last week, after credit cards are now under pressure in the face of interest rate increases. It is a debt that raises fears of future shocks. Consumer confidence, the latest indicator for November, fell two points to 100.2 nationwide, symbolizing the unease.
prudent outlook
Furthermore, department stores and the other players in the sector maintain a cautious outlook on the whole year-end season, traditionally and by far the most important in terms of turnover and profits. The National Association of American Retailers on balance forecasts an increase in sales for November and December of between 6% and 8%, more than the average of 4.9% over the last ten years but less than 13.5% of last year. This should push the total to a new high of perhaps 960 billion. Net of inflation, still 7.7% annually in October, it is by no means clear that it is enough to show genuine growth.