We're shopping and loving it. We're in the best holiday shopping mood in ten years & it's likely to be a merry Christmas for many retailers:
Bottom Line: The record sales that we've been posting during the start of the holiday shopping season aren't by chance. We're the most confident we've been about our own economy in a decade. In a separate story today I'm covering our personal economy, this one's about the mood and desire to spend during the holidays. It's all good news for those looking to cash in during the holiday. In Gallup's annual study of our holiday shopping sentiment we're the most positive we've been since 2007. On average we're 15% more willing to spend as compared to this time a year ago.
We've already set records for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales and this kind of positivity is likely to show up in sales throughout the holiday shopping season. During the 2007 holiday shopping season, nearly 20% of the total sales took place the last week of the year, after Christmas. With the most desired item being a gift card (41% asking for them this year), we're likely to see a 2017 version of that play out. In other words, our holiday shopping optimism isn't likely to letup until the deals do as well.
According to the National Retail Federation here's the final scorecard for the 5 day buying binge...
174 million Americans shopped in stores and online during (exceeding the original 164 million estimate)
Average spending per person over the five-day period was $335.47, with $250.78 — 75 percent — specifically going toward gifts. The biggest spenders were older Millennials (25-34 years old) at $419.52. All signs point to this being the best holiday shopping season on record with plenty of economic mojo entering 2018.