U.S. Holiday Shoppers Support Continued Economic Recovery

Stores across the United States offer discounts during the weekend after Thanksgiving to attract large crowds like the one seen here at a department store in South Carolina.

Washington — More people than ever before kicked off the holiday shopping season in the United States, offering a welcome boost to businesses continuing to recover from economic recession.

The nationwide shopping spree began November 23, the day after Thanksgiving, known as “Black Friday” for its role in helping businesses turn a profit and move “into the black” for the year. For many retailers, sales on this day account for a substantial portion of annual profits and indicate consumer spending trends from late November through the end of December.

This year, the National Retail Federation reported that 89 million people braved the crowds on Black Friday alone, up from 86 million in 2011. According to the federation’s survey, traffic and spending grew from there. A record 247 million shoppers visited stores and websites during Black Friday weekend, up from 226 million in 2011.

Spending was also up, with the average holiday shopper dropping $423 during the weekend, an increase from $398 in 2011. Total spending reached an estimated $59.1 billion.

Consumers spent more of their holiday budget online than in years past, with the average person spending $174.42 over the weekend. This 40.7 percent chunk of total weekend spending was an increase from 37.8 percent in 2011. Nearly half of holiday shoppers made online purchases on Black Friday, and more than one-quarter did the same on Thanksgiving Day.

Nearly six in 10 shoppers purchased clothing and clothing accessories, up from 51 percent in 2011. Gift buyers also bought toys (34.6 percent), books, CDs, DVDs, video games (39.8 percent), electronics (37.7 percent) and jewelry (15.2 percent). Roughly one in three consumers bought gift cards during the weekend, up nearly 10 percentage points from the 23.1 percent who did so in 2011.

Mostly drawn in by limited-time price reductions, more than half of the weekend’s consumers flocked to department stores, up from 48.7 percent last year. Large numbers of shoppers also visited discount stores (39.4 percent), clothing stores (29 percent), electronics stores (33 percent), grocery stores (21.7 percent) and drugstores (12.7 percent).

Many consumers shopped for gifts in preparation for Christmas, a Christian holiday celebrated in the United States December 25, and Hanukkah, a Jewish holiday observed for eight days, which in 2012 begins on December 8.

Contributing about $2.5 trillion to the U.S. annual gross domestic product (GDP), retail is a daily barometer for the nation’s economy. Retailers in the United States currently operate more than 3.6 million establishments that support one in five U.S. jobs, or about 42 million working Americans.

U.S. economic activity significantly affects the economies of other nations. The U.S. GDP stood at $15 trillion in 2011. Measured by purchasing power parity exchange rates (equalizing what people can buy with different currencies), that came to about 1.3 times the size of the second-largest economy, that of China (whose population is more than four times that of the United States) and more than three times the GDP of third-ranked Japan. With just 4.5 percent of the world’s population, the United States was responsible for 19 percent of total economic output.