Consumer Behavior

Retail holiday sales grew more than expected

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January 23, 2025

Retail sales during the 2024 holiday season grew 4% over 2023, an unexpected growth, given 2023 set a record of $994.1 billion.

The National Retail Federation had forecast 2024 holiday sales would increase between 2.5% and 3.5% to between $979.5 billion and $989 billion.

Sales for the full year grew 3.6%, hitting a record $5.28 trillion, according to NRF.

It was a season of consumers coming out to spend, according to a NRF press release.

"Consumers came out to spend this holiday season and clearly underscored the solid growth in the US economy," NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said in the release. "The spending pace was back to pre-pandemic growth and indicates a good start for the year ahead. While the shorter holiday shopping calendar likely influenced the continued trend of more online shopping, there was also a return to in-person shopping experiences and a focus on early buying. The 2024 figures were driven in part by lower inflation compared with 2023, particularly for goods. Even though consumers are still relatively healthy and there was a notable increase in spending, they remain budget conscious."

Based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, NRF estimates retailers hired 438,000 seasonal workers during November and December, in line with the 400,000 to 500,000 NRF had expected.

Last week NRF reported that 2024 retail sales had ended on a high note and the retail segment should continue to show strength in 2025.