Deep discounts keep shoppers buying but retailers fail to boost dollar sales.
NPD Holiday Shopping Bag 2016 Weekly Report shows the week seven (ending Dec. 17) holiday shopping push didn’t bringing in the dollar sales of last year. Deep discounts may be driving shoppers into stores but are further delaying the benefits for retailers.
According to The NPD Group’s weekly point-of-sale results for key general merchandise categories across in-store and online channels, dollar sales in the seventh week of the 2016 holiday shopping season were 11% lower than the same week in 2015. Cumulatively, dollar sales in the first seven weeks of the 2016 holiday shopping season were 4% behind the first seven weeks of the 2015 holiday season.
Overall Performance
Each of the five industries being tracked — Apparel, Toys, Technology, Athletic Footwear and Prestige Fragrances — saw dollar sales declines, the steepest of the holiday season so far.
Apparel performed the best of the five industries being tracked, with the lowest decline for the week.
Top Performing Categories
Home Automation
PC’s (driven by Notebooks)
Stereo Headphones
Games/Puzzles
Instant Print Cameras
“Discounts are used by retailers to either manage excess inventory or stimulate sluggish selling, and this holiday it is certainly the latter. However, discounts have been too readily available this holiday season to offset declines compared to last year,” said NPD’s chief industry analyst, Marshal Cohen. “Retailers are trying to compete across all channels with the same merchandise so price becomes the focus. The level of discounting in play this holiday season is making it a challenge to capture the volume seen last year.”