NEW YORK — Consumers stepped up their spending, particularly on items like gadgets and clothing, for the first seven weeks of the holiday shopping period. But the pace was slower than a year ago amid worries about higher prices and other economic concerns, according to new data from Visa released Tuesday.<\/p>\n
From Nov. 1 through Sunday, holiday sales rose 4.2%, a slower clip from the 4.8% increase during the same period a year ago, according to the company’s Visa Consulting & Analytics division, which analyzed a subset of Visa payments network data in the U.S. <\/p>\n
The figure includes all methods of payment including cash and card.<\/p>\n
The data, which exclude sales from auto dealerships, gas stations, and restaurants, are not adjusted for inflation including the impact from President Donald Trump’s tariffs. <\/a><\/p>\n When adjusted, retail sales rose a more modest 2.2% for that time frame, according to Visa’s principal U.S. economist Michael Brown. That compares to the inflation-adjusted 3% sales gain last year. <\/p>\n \u201cIt’s certainly not a spectacular season,\u201d Brown told The Associated Press. “It’s sort of an average holiday season given concerns about macro economic growth, inflation. There’s still a lot of uncertainty among the consumer population.”<\/p>\n Retailers have described shoppers as being selective when making holiday purchases, choosing to focus on gifts for under the tree instead of holiday decor like ornaments for the tree, for example. Many households are struggling with higher prices in groceries, rent and imported goods hit by tariffs. The latest job report,<\/a> released by the Labor Department last week, also shows a souring employment picture.<\/p>\n As a result, consumers’ mood has been gloomy, though it improved last month as worries about inflation eased a bit, according to the University of Michigan<\/a>.<\/p>\n When all the numbers are in, Visa expects holiday sales data will more or less be in line with its prediction of a 4.6% sales increase for the November and December period combined.<\/p>\n Still to come are several of the holiday shopping season’s top 10 busiest days including Tuesday, the day after Christmas and the Saturday after Christmas, according to Sensormatic, which tracks retail foot traffic.<\/p>\n The Visa data is in line with the forecast from the National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail industry trade group. It expects sales over November and December of between $1.01 trillion and $1.02 trillion<\/a>. That would be up 3.7% to 4.2% over last year.<\/p>\n Predicting the shopping season has been challenging as the 43-day federal government shutdown delayed economic reports including those covering monthly retail sales figures. The federal government is gradually catching up.<\/p>\n