Dive Brief:
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Overall retail sales in the U.S. grew 0.1% in October, matching Septembers 0.1% increase, which was left unchanged, and missing estimates of closer to 0.3%.
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Core retail sales fared better, rising 0.2% in October and revised higher to 0.1% in September, which had previously been estimated to have fallen 0.1%.
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Clothing sales were flat and electronics and appliance sales fell 0.4%. Building materials and garden equipment sales rose 0.9%, furniture-store sales rose 0.4%, sporting goods/hobby store sales rose 0.4%, and online sales rose 1.4%.
Dive Insight:
The October retail sales report doesn’t provide much cheer for the holiday sales season, as more Americans seem to be putting their windfall from lower gas prices to basics like rent and splurges like eating out.
Officials at the Federal Reserve have increasingly been making noise about raising its interest rate in December, and despite the muted retail sales report, that’s not expected to change.
With inventory up at retail stores, these factors tee up the holiday approach to be a lot about slashing prices to get consumers to spend.
It may be a good thing that retailers are less focused on Black Friday as their best chance to make good on their year sales projections, because they’ll likely need to give consumers time, along with those discounts, to complete their shopping.
