U.S. consumers who flocked to malls at the beginning of the holiday shopping season have since backed off, according to data released by SpendingPulse. One of the main contributing factors to such a decline was the ease of online shopping and a severe Midwest ice storm that kept consumers indoors.
SpendingPulse data showed that over the first 20 days of the holiday shopping season, from November 23 to December 12, sales at apparel chains, including: Gap, Aeropostale, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Urban Outfitters, actually rose by 0.5 percent this year. However, this figure was miniscule when compared to the 5.1% gain represented during last year’s holiday shopping season.
Specifically, apparel sales rose 11 percent on Black Friday. Shoppers, taking advantage of early hours and deep discounts, saw discounts as high as 50% off everything in Aeropostale. Sales of women’s apparel actually fell 5.7% during the holiday shopping season thus far, with stores such as TalBots and AnnTaylor feeling the effects the worst.
Michael McNamara, SpendingPulse’s Vice President, stated, “Across the board we’ve had a regression in growth since Black Friday to moderate levels or somewhat flat levels. Overall to us it looks as though bad weather conditions across the central and northern parts of the country contributed to the bad growth rates.”
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