Cold Weather Fueled a Hot Holiday Shopping Season

US retail sales during the holiday season increased 4% ... a record high!

I'm a bit late here, but I wanted to revisit my mid-October (contrarian) prediction of the impact of weather on 2024 holiday sales.

Here is a summary of my thoughts at the time (you can read the full post below):

Q4 last year (Nov - Jan) was the fourth warmest in 129 years, directly impacting buying patterns. Demand/sales for cold-weather merchandise was very soft.

Comparatively colder temperatures this year will translate into a net increase in demand, which means higher sales and margins as we move into one of the easiest weather comparisons on record.

And here's the post-facto headline results from the National Retail Federation (NRF):

NRF Says Holiday Season Was a Notable Success as ‘Consumers Came Out to Spend’

WASHINGTON – Data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau shows that core retail sales during the 2024 holiday season grew an unexpectedly high 4% over 2023 to a record $994.1 billion, coming in ahead of the National Retail Federation’s forecast, NRF said.

Source: https://lnkd.i…