Weekend Before Christmas Shopping Will Drive Up Holiday Sales, Retail Group Says

Dec. 20, 2009 — -- It's beginning to look a lot like the Christmas, at least when it comes to shopping.

Prices have largely stabilized and shopping patterns are returning to historic norms in contrast to last year when retailers hit the panic button during the financial crisis and slashed prices to clear overstocked shelves.

According to data from MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse, the holiday shopping season slowly improved in December, but shoppers are still hesitating to spend more even as retailers have better planned for sales.

Returning to a traditional pattern of shopping, holiday shoppers hit the stores on Black Friday and the weekend after Thanksgiving; they slowed their spending for the first part of December; and then started returning to the mall as Christmas drew closer.

Sales this "Super Saturday," the Saturday before Christmas, are expected to be the second- or third-largest spending day this holiday season. This year, however, with Christmas falling several days later, sales might not be as strong as anticipated on Saturday as shoppers will have several days during the week to pick up any last minute items. And the winter storm hitting the East Coast could also affect sales this weekend.

One thing, however, never goes out of style: procrastination. The National Retail Federation reported earlier this week that shoppers had only finished less than half of their shopping by last week.

From the start of November until Dec. 12, SpendingPulse, which uses MasterCard's payment system and surveys to estimate total retail sales for all forms of payment including credit, cash and checks, found the following:

Online sales:

Increased 13 percent from Nov. 1 to Dec. 12 (compared to a year ago)

Increased 14.4 percent from Black Friday to Dec. 12 (compared to a year ago)

Electronic sales:

Up 4.4 percent from Nov. 1 to Dec. 12 (compared to a year ago)

Up 3.2 percent from Black Friday to Dec. 12 (compared to a year ago)

Up 8 percent on Black Friday

Slow Improvements Show Retail Growth

Apparel sales have not been good, but in recent weeks, sales have been improving slightly. The category is down largely due to a drop in sales of women's apparel compared to year ago:

Down 3.2 percent from Nov. 1 to Dec. 12 (compared to a year ago)

Down 1.2 percent from Black Friday to Dec. 12 (compared to a year ago)

Women's apparel is down 3 percent since Nov. 1; down 2.6 percent since Black Friday

Menswear up 1.1 percent since Nov. 1 and up 5.1 percent since Black Friday

Footwear up 1.3 percent since Nov. 1 and up 4.9 percent since Black Friday

Luxury sales:

Down 4.2 percent from Nov. 1 to Dec. 12 (compared to a year ago)

Down 2.0 percent from Black Friday to Dec. 12 (compared to a year ago)