Technology Didn’t Share in Holiday Retail Spending Windfall, MasterCard Says

Technology didn’t share in the holiday selling season spending windfall at U.S. retailers, said Julia Monti, business leader-worldwide communications at MasterCard, in a Monday blog post. “Retailers rejoice!” Monti said, citing the results of MasterCard’s SpendingPulse survey of U.S. retail sales trends across cards, cash and checks. “U.S. retail sales saw solid gains this holiday season,” Monti said. The survey estimates that retail sales, excluding cars and gas, grew 7.9 percent between Nov. 27 -- the “traditional” Black Friday -- and Christmas Eve compared with the same 2014 period, she said. E-commerce and furniture were “the biggest winners” of the holiday, incurring double-digit growth from a year earlier, “while electronics and men’s apparel lagged well behind,” she said. For certain retailers, e-commerce sales “were a big gift,” growing roughly 20 percent from a year earlier, she said: “This is not a total surprise, as 70% of U.S. consumers report doing more research online than before,” she said. “Transitioning from research to a sale makes sense, if the proper customer experience and incentive -- free or fast shipping, for instance -- is in place.” MasterCard SpendingPulse policy bars the public disclosure of "specific category numbers," Monti emailed us Tuesday when we asked for more details on her statement that consumer technology sales lagged well behind other categories. "But I can tell you that electronics sales declined compared to the 2014 holidays." The MasterCard holiday sales estimates “echo what we’ve been reporting throughout the holiday season,” Shawn DuBravac, chief economist at the Consumer Technology Association, emailed us Tuesday. “Our pre-holiday forecasts pointed to the importance that the online channel would play this year,” DuBravac said. “The 2015 holiday season appears to have continued this channel shift, with online becoming a more prominent component of consumer purchases -- as we predicted. Consumer electronics was just one of many categories influenced by this shift.”