The injection of economic stimulus funds, coupled with wider reopening across the country, boosted US retail sales in March, with sales growth increasing at double digits.
U.S. online sales increased by 56.8%
Data from Mastercard Spending Pulse shows that US retail sales (excluding automobiles and gasoline) in March increased by 26.3% year-on-year, and online sales increased by 56.8%.
Due to the unique retail situation under the pandemic in March last year, Mastercard also included the sales data for 2019 for comparison to show a longer-term growth trend. Compared with March 2019, sales in March 2021 increased by 14%, and online sales increased by 85.9%.
Statistics show that US sales in the first half of March increased by 1.6% compared with the same period last year, a relatively small increase, mainly due to the epidemic in the same period last year, and a large number of consumers flocked to stores to buy products and stock them.
In contrast, in the second half of March, retail sales increased by 46.9% year-on-year. This growth not only reflects the positive promotion of economic stimulation of consumer spending, but also indicates the decline in national retail sales during the same period in 2020.
Significant increase in clothing jewelry sales
In addition, the unique situation of the retail industry in March last year can also be seen from the annual comparison of various industries. For example, in March 2020, people began to stay away from face-to-face social interaction for the first time, and spending in non-essential industries such as clothing and jewelry declined, which led to a significant increase in the growth rate in March this year. Apparel sales increased by 60.6% compared to the same period last year, and they were up 18.7% compared to March 2019.
The basic necessities of life industries such as grocery stores face the opposite situation. Last year, as consumer inventories increased, sales of related products soared. Compared with the strong growth in March 2020, groceries fell into the negative growth area this month. However, compared with March 2019, grocery sales still increased by 7.5%.
It can be seen that with the introduction of the vaccine, the pandemic has gradually improved, and people’s outing activities have increased. Therefore, the sales of the jewelry and apparel industry have increased significantly compared with the same period last year, which shows that consumers are more interested in this type of products. The demand for daily necessities began to grow stronger, on the contrary, the inventory of daily necessities has decreased.
Therefore, the clothing and jewelry industry, which was in a low period last year, may usher in a wave of peak seasons with the large-scale opening up.
