Overall retail spending in the United States during the 2018 holiday season totaled $850 billion, reaching its highest level in six years and up by 5.1 percent from 2017, according to Mastercard’s SpendingPulse, in CBRE’s market flash report.
This holiday season set a record for in-store pick up of online purchases, which increased by 47 percent year-over-year during the November 1 to December 19 period. This reflected retailers’ increased investment in buy-online, pick up in-store (BOPS) and buy-online ship-to-store (BOSS) strategies over the second half of 2018.
To avoid disappointing customers and reduce delivery costs, 33 percent of retailers canceled their “last order promise date,” choosing to instead promote their BOPS and BOSS offerings.
Strong growth was driven by low gas prices and exceptionally strong consumer sentiment, which reached its highest level since the 1999 holiday season.
