Enticed by earlier store openings, consumers responded by spending more. Significant spending actually started Thanksgiving Day, in advance of Black Friday. Retail year-over-year dollar volume growth on Thursday-Friday was 6.3% and transaction growth was 7.3%. This performance was especially impressive in light of tough comparables for Black Friday 2010, when dollar volume growth was quite strong. Some merchant categories that saw a boost in dollar volume growth this year were Electronic/Appliances, Clothing and Accessory Stores, and NonStore Retailers. Cyber Monday continued the spending trend of the Thanksgiving weekend, with eCommerce year-over-year dollar volume growth of nearly 20.0%.
The attractive promotions offered by many retailers resulted in lower average ticket values. Overall year-over-year average ticket growth was 0.7%, while average ticket growth at Retailers declined 0.9%. Significant discounting at Electronic/Appliances stores and General Merchandise Stores (incl. Value Retail) were the main contributors to the lower average ticket growth within the Retail category.
Non-Retail discretionary merchants did quite well also. Food Service/Drinking Places (including Restaurants and Quick Service Restaurants) dollar volume growth was 11.7%, versus 9.6% last year. Leisure saw a big improvement versus last year's growth of -1.5%, with dollar volume growth of 12.5%. Travel also posted healthy dollar volume growth of 14.9%.
Source: BusinessWire
