Leading into Christmas this year, the customers primarily did their holiday shopping through e-commerce.
With 18.8 percent surge from the 2018 period, U.S. holiday e-commerce sales achieved a new record high, according to a data presented by Mastercard.
Overall holiday retail sales rose 3.4 percent.
Sales estimates from the National Retail Federation ranged from 3.8 percent to 4.2 percent.
This year, e-commerce represented 14.6 percent of total retail between November 1 and Christmas Eve.
Accounting for up to 40 percent of the sales for the year, the holiday shopping season is crucial for retailers.
The calendar didn’t help the industry as Thanksgiving fell on Nov. 28, which was a week later than last year.
This implies that retailers had six fewer days to drive sales leading to Christmas.
Steve Sadove, senior adviser for MasterCard noted: “Due to a later than usual Thanksgiving holiday, we saw retailers offering omnichannel sales earlier in the season, meeting consumers’ demand for the best deals across all channels and devices.”
The rush in shopping was boosted by wage of growth and a strong job market, according to analysts.
