The backdrop of this holiday season looks quite different than last year’s.
While many consumers have adopted a sense of pre-pandemic normalcy with in-store shopping, inflation has largely hampered the industry’s success in 2022 so far.
Some reports expect that holiday sales growth will slow this year compared to last, with Deloitte estimating growth between 4% and 6% in 2022 compared to an increase of 15.1% during last year’s period. Meanwhile, Mastercard’s latest estimates expect U.S. growth at 7.1%, but noted that inflation will play a role in consumer expectations for discounts.
