2008 U.S. Holiday Sales Expected To Reach $98 Billion
This year, U.S. consumers are expected to spend more than $98 billion during the November-December holiday retail season, Nielsen reported Thursday.
Nielsen’s holiday retail forecast predicts a 4.7% gain in dollar sales over 2007. Unit sales, however, are expected to be virtually flat (-0.8%) versus a year ago.
The forecast includes projected sales at food stores, drug stores, mass merchandisers, and convenience stores, across 125 product categories tracked by Nielsen.
With the economy in turmoil, the 2008 holiday season will be closely watched for indications of declining consumer spending. Declines in consumer spending were last recorded in the fourth quarter of 1991, during the recession of the early 1990s.
Go behind the numbers: read NielsenWire’s Q&A with James Russo, co-author of Nielsen’s holiday retail forecast.
View in depth data on holiday retail sales projections and consumer spending expectations.
View the full press release.
Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Convenience Store News and Adweek.
Submit questions about the report to Nielsen forecast co-authors, James Russo and Todd Hale, by commenting below.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
[...] YORK Shoppers will buy fewer goods this holiday season, versus a year ago, according to a Nielsen Co. retail forecast that projects a 1 percent decrease in the number of items that consumers will buy, the first [...]
October 15th, 2008 at 8:10 am
[...] Nielsen’s holiday forecast of a 4.7% overall gain is actually higher than 2007’s 4.5% gain over the previous season. This year’s sales predication includes expansion in dollar sales across drug stores, grocery stores, big box retailers like Wal-Mart, and convenience stores. [...]
October 21st, 2008 at 12:19 pm
[...] expectations ahead for a slowing economy, all eyes are on 2008 U.S. Holiday Sales. Nielson projects $98 billion in expected sales. This forecast would represent at 4.7% increase in sales over 2007, [...]
November 14th, 2008 at 10:48 am
[...] Even with a sagging global economy, sales during this coming season are expected to rise slightly over last year. [...]
November 17th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
[...] with a sagging global economy, sales in the USA during this coming season are expected to rise slightly over last year. Of course, to get your share of the sales action, you’ll want to pull out all the stops in [...]
November 24th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
[...] at least as of October 9, was still predicting in-store sales this holiday season to rise 4.7% to $98 billion. Unit sales may be flat, but dollar sales will be up, the research firm said. So even if every one [...]