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The
increase is lower than the 3.7% growth Mastercard forecast in
September and last year's 7.6% rise as higher interest rates and
inflation pressured consumer spending.
Amazon.com and Walmart ramped up promotions through November in
the United States to entice bargain-hunting shoppers, but
analysts said that the discounts were not as deep as the prior
year, when retailers were saddled with excess stock after the
pandemic.
Some of those discounts were rolled back starting in December,
when customers were expected to buy last-minute gifts and
household goods on the Saturday before Christmas - dubbed "Super
Saturday."
Arun Sundaram, an analyst at CRFA Research, said many shoppers
waited for Black Friday and Cyber Monday to make holiday
purchases and finished the final sprint during Super Saturday.
"Consumers are still spending, but they're still price conscious
and want to stretch their budgets," Sundaram said. He said the
weeks between Cyber Monday and Super Saturday were a "soft
period" for spending, but shoppers used the final weekend before
Christmas to look for "big deals."
Ecommerce sales grew at the slower pace of 6.3% compared to last
year's 10.6% as the popularity of online shopping came off
pandemic highs, the report showed.
Sales in the apparel and restaurant categories rose 2.4% and
7.8%, respectively, during the holiday shopping period,
according to the Mastercard SpendingPulse report, while sales of
electronics fell 0.4%.
Mastercard SpendingPulse measures in-store and online retail
sales across all forms of payment. It excludes automotive sales.
(Reporting by Savyata Mishra in Bengaluru and Arriana McLymore
in Charlotte, North Carolina ; Editing by Devika Syamnath and
Mark Porter)
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