Mastercard: US retail sales grew nearly 8% during this holiday season
(CNN, KYMA/KECY) - Discounts and deals apparently swayed people into spending more this holiday season.
Monday MasterCard reported holiday retail sales in the United States jumped over 7% compared to last year.
The company looked at sales in-store and online from November 1st to December 24th.
They say this year retailers discounted heavily, while consumers went hunting for the best deals and made trade-offs to stretch their gift-giving budgets to accommodate inflation.
Preliminary figures show online sales grew over 10.5% compared to the same period last year.
Black Friday was still the top day for shopping with sales up more than 12% from last year and consumers also dined out more with in-person dining at restaurants up over 15%.