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September 23, 2019 • Issue 19:09:02

It's beginning to look like

a good holiday season

Two categories that charted the most significant increases
were apparel sales (which rose 7.9 percent over the previ-
ous year) and home improvement spending (up 9 percent),
Mastercard reported.

By all accounts, online stores were big winners last year,
with holiday shoppers increasing their online spend by
more than 11.5 percent over the year before, to total $146.8
billion, according to the National Retail Federation. But
most retail sales were at brick-and-mortar establishments,
the NRF reported. Overall holiday retail sales grew just un-
der 3 percent over 2017 to total $707.5 billion last year.

NRF President and CEO Matthew R. Shay said slower than
expected growth (NRF had projected an overall growth
By Patti Murphy rate of 4.3 percent that would push spending to just under
$721 billion) likely was tied to consumer concerns over a
mazon Prime Day 2019 is history, schools are trade war. It is possible those same concerns could dampen
back in session and there's a nip in the air – all spending this holiday season, despite a decision by Presi-
signs that fall is upon us, and it's time to start dent Trump to delay tariffs on an estimated $300 billion
A thinking about how to help merchants make the worth of Chinese imports from Sept. 1 to Dec. 15. 2019.
most of the year-end holiday shopping season.
Those tariffs would tack on 5 percent to the cost of items
"Now is the time to get with customers and prospects to like smartphones, laptops, household appliances, toys and
talk" about the upcoming holidays and what they need to clothing. This follows a 15 percent tariff imposed on $125
compete better for share of wallet, said Laura Demke-Ca- billion of items that include smart watches, Bluetooth head-
lixte, president and CEO of EPNA LLC, an ISO headquar- phones, flat panel televisions and footwear.
tered just north of Chicago in Evanston, Ill. She added this
means things like staffing requirements, stocking up and
marketing campaigns. "You need to get them moving in
that direction," she said. "You really want to be seen as their Contributed articles inside by:
advocate."

Christmas, Hanukah and other year-end holidays repre- Dee and Emily Karawadra .................................................................32
sent a huge selling opportunity for retail businesses. From Jeff Fortney .............................................................................................34
shopping aisles to online shopping carts, strong consumer Adam Atlas ..............................................................................................36
spending makes for abundant holiday cheer for retailers Nick Starai................................................................................................38
large and small. According to Mastercard's SpendingPulse
report, which charts retail spending trends across all pay- TOC on page 3
ment types (including cash and checks), retail 2018 holiday
sales topped $850 billion, a 5.1 percent increase over 2017.
Continued on page 30