Holiday spending jumps 7.9%, fueled by savings on gas

After years of recessionary belt tightening, consumers spent 7.9 percent more than last year during the dash between Black Friday and Christmas Eve, and ponied up for furniture and other high-priced items, according to MasterCard SpendingPulse.

Independent retailer Patina has been exceeding sales goals this season as well, with day-after Christmas shoppers looking for discounts on hipster holiday items as well as full-priced merchandise, said Uptown manager Kim Cook.

A late surge in shopping and pent-up demand for women’s clothing gave a boost to holiday sales, according to early spending figures. MasterCard Advisors senior vice president of marketing insights, Sarah Quinlan, says, “Over the holidays when we’re using e-commerce, we’re buying for someone else”. But a new study has found that, so far, the holiday season has shaped up to be a relatively healthy one for the retail industry. The uptick was driven by people sitting in the comfort of their homes or at work, with online shopping up 20%. That will help what has been “in general a awful year for margins”, he said.

“This shows that consumers are feeling more confident that they are going to get that bonus or have a job a year from now”, Quinlan said.

Time/Money Magazine reported this morning that Amazon had “an insanely successful holiday season”, setting new records in its 21-year history. The retailer said its own hardware devices were among the best-selling products on its site this season, with the Fire tablet ranking as its biggest seller and the Fire TV Stick ranking as its third-biggest seller. However MasterCard’s data suggests that consumers ended up ponying up for clothing after all.

MasterCard said in its report that low gas prices were likely a factor in spurring consumers to spend more this holiday season. But the National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, expects sales for November and December to rise 3.7% to $630.5 billion from a year ago.