Holiday Season Retail Results for 2023 Reveal Growth in Line with Expectations/Inflation

By Nick Rigitano 
NSGA Director of Insights and Analysis 

DOWNERS GROVE, ILLINOIS (January 25, 2024) – With another holiday season in the books, the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) has been keeping note of the 2023 holiday sales results released by multiple organizations. The overall sentiment from the retail holiday results is modest growth for this past season in line with forecast expectations and inflation. 

Mastercard reported US retail sales grew 3.1 percent this holiday season (Nov. 1–Dec. 24), according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which measures overall retail sales across all payment types. Online retail sales were up 6.3 percent year-over-year, while in-store sales were up 2.2 percent. Mastercard noted even though online spending is increasing at a faster pace than in-store, shopping in-store still makes up a considerably larger portion of total retail spending. 

The National Retail Federation (NRF) recently announced retail sales continued to grow in December, completing a strong holiday shopping season, according to the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor, powered by Affinity Solutions. The Retail Monitor calculation of core retail sales – excluding restaurants in addition to autos and gas – showed an increase of 2.4 percent year-over-year in December, compared with an increase of 4.17 percent year-over-year in November. 

NRF also noted total retail sales for all of 2023 were up 5.32 percent over 2022 and core retail sales were up 4.46 percent. December marked the third month the Retail Monitor has provided data on monthly retail sales. Prior to that, NRF referenced data from the US Census Bureau. 

According to the estimates provided by the US Census Bureau, core retail sales during the 2023 holiday period, November and December combined, grew 3.8 percent vs. the corresponding period in 2022, supported by continued inflation and despite high interest rates. The Bureau also mentioned sales for the full year (2023) grew 3.6 percent over 2022 to a record $5.13 trillion. 

For more information: 

Click here for Mastercard holiday results 

Click here for NRF holiday results