Retail sales in the United States, excluding automotive, increased 11% year over year in September, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, as a cooling housing market limited Furniture and Furnishings, and Hardware sector growth, but less COVID-19 pandemic concerns boosted Restaurants, Airlines and Lodging.
E-commerce sales continued to gain, up 10.7% from September 2021 according to Mastercard, while in-store sales advanced 11.1%.
Sales in September 2022 advanced 24.6% versus pre-pandemic September 2019 sans automotive and 22.3% sans automotive and gas. Versus September 2019, e-commerce sales gained 90.3% while in-store sales advanced by 16.9%. Mastercard SpendingPulse measures physical store and digital retail sales across all forms of payment and is not adjusted for inflation.
By retail sector, as defined by Mastercard, year-over-year September sales were:
- Apparel up 8.9%
- Department Stores up 7.3%
- Electronics up 13.9%
- Fuel and Convenience up 23.5%
- Furniture and Furnishings up 1.4%
- Grocery up 9.4%
- Hardware up 1.7%
- Jewelry up 6.9%
- Luxury, excluding jewelry, down 5.2%
Under the experiences heading, Restaurant sales gained 10.9% while Airlines sales increased 56.4% and Lodging sales increased 38.1%.
Retail sector sales versus pre-pandemic 2019 were:
- Apparel up 25.9%
- Department Stores up 22.7%
- Electronics up 32.7%
- Fuel and Convenience up 47.5%
- Furniture and Furnishings up 29.4%
- Grocery up 24.8%
- Hardware up 17%
- Jewelry up 67.7%
- Luxury, excluding jewelry, up 6.2%
As for experiences sales versus 2019, Restaurant sales gained 44.9% while Airlines sales increased 10.9% and Lodging sales increased 42.5%.
