November Sales Up Despite 2 Major Shopping Days Landing in December, Retail Montior Says – Gifts & Decorative Accessories

Even though two of the holiday shopping season’s busiest days flowed over into December with this year’s calendar, November still some moderate growth in overall retail sales, according to the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor recently released by the National Retail Federation.

Total retail sales for the month – excluding automobiles and gas – were up 0.15 percent seasonally adjusted month over month and up 2.35 percent unadjusted year over year for November. That compared with increases of 0.74 percent month over month and 4.13 percent year over year in October, according to the Retail Monitor.

“November sales increased on top of a strong October and would have been even higher if Thanksgiving Sunday and Cyber Monday hadn’t fallen in December,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “Year-over-year gains were solid even as retail prices in many categories are lower this year, showing that consumers are buying more merchandise as the economy continues to grow. We remain confident in our holiday forecast.”

When calculating core retails sales, which excludes restaurants in addition to automobiles and gas, November totals were down 0.19 percent month over month but up 1.43 percent year over year – a notable difference between October, which saw increases of 0.83 percent month over month and a whopping 4.59 percent year over year.

Overall total sales were up 2.15 percent year over year for the first 11 months of 2024 and core sales were up 2.33 percent, according to the Retail Monitor. The NRF has forecasted that retail sales for November and December will grow between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent compared to last year.

November sales saw an increase in five out of nine retail categories, led by online sales, grocery/beverage stores and clothing and accessories stores. Here are some categories to note:

• Online and other non-store sales were up 1.32 percent month over month seasonally adjusted and up 21.48 percent year over year unadjusted.
• Clothing and accessories stores were down 0.18 percent month over month seasonally adjusted but up 4.21 percent year over year unadjusted.
• General merchandise stores were down 0.05 percent month over month seasonally adjusted but up 2.01 percent year over year unadjusted.
• Health and personal care stores were down 0.16 percent month over month seasonally adjusted but up 1.64 percent year over year unadjusted.
• Furniture and home furnishings stores were down 0.8 percent month over month seasonally adjusted and down 1.15 percent year over year unadjusted.

The Retail Monitor uses actual, anonymized credit and debit card purchase data compiled by Affinity Solutions and does not need to be revised monthly or annually. 

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