Holiday shopping season is a critical period for retailers, accounting for 40% of annual sales. But this year's Thanksgiving falls on November 28, a week later than last November 22, reducing retailers' peak sales season between Thanksgiving and Christmas by six days. Thanksgiving is traditionally the beginning of the holiday shopping season in the United States.
"As the Thanksgiving Day is later than the previous year, we see retailers providing Omni channel sales earlier, meeting the needs of consumers in all channels and equipment to compare three stores," said Steve sadove, senior consultant of MasterCard.
According to the retail sales data from November 1 to Christmas Eve tracked by MasterCard, e-commerce sales accounted for 14.6% of the total retail sales this year, up 18.8% year on year.
Overall holiday retail sales excluding cars increased by 3.4%.
The last time the shopping season was shortened was in 2013, when retail chains and express companies stepped up efforts to deliver packages to customers by Christmas.
Since then, retailers have invested heavily in providing day to day delivery, in store pick-up lockers and online business, competing for market share with retail giant AMZN. O.
"This year, e-commerce sales hit a record high, with more people shopping online on holidays," sadove said.
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