A December 1 headline from Reuters sums up the start of the Christmas shopping season: US Holiday Shoppers Shake Off Economic Blues for Online Spending Spree.
Let’s briefly review the numbers. Deep discounts have spurred shoppers to splurge on big-ticket items, with strong demand in categories like electronics, sporting goods, and appliances, according to Adobe Analytics.
- Spending online in November, according to Adobe Analytics, rose 7.1% from a year ago to $137.4 billion. That includes a 9.0% rise in ‘buy now pay later’ sales to $10.1 billion.
- For Cyber Monday alone, consumers spent $14.3 billion online, up 7.1% compared to 2024, exceeding Adobe’s projection of a 6.3% increase.
- A record 202.9 million customers shopped during the Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday period, compared with the 197 million recorded last year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). 129.5 million consumers shopped in-store for the holidays, up 3% from a year earlier, the NRF said.
- Mastercard SpendingPulse™ reported that overall Black Friday sales excluding automotive rose 4.1% from a year ago.
What does this all mean? Despite consumer surveys that are signaling a sour mood, the early start to the all-important holiday shopping season suggests a different story.
But while Americans are fretting over high prices, they are on the hunt for deals. If job security is a concern, it didn’t show up in the post-Thanksgiving data. The season may end like a lamb, but it started like a lion.
A broad perspective on the holidays
Investors and analysts will focus on holiday spending numbers. But the question of whether Christmas has become too commercialized and is too focused on spending and shopping isn’t going away.
Many argue it should center on what’s most important in life rather than consumerism, which is a sentiment famously echoed by Charlie Brown back in the 1960s. Charlie Brown felt completely out of sync with the materialistic spirit of the holidays. And he expressed those feelings in A Charlie Brown Christmas, which first aired in 1965.
We have made it a habit of looking at various issues through a very narrow prism—through the eyes of the dispassionate investor. It’s an analysis based on numbers, facts, and data.
Yet today, the message from the 1965 Peanuts special still feels as relevant as ever, amid record sales and relentless marketing.