Despite the Covid-19 Omicron variant, inflation, bad weather and supply chain issues across the country, the National Retail Federation is reporting that consumers ramped up their spending in January. While initial predictions for retail sales in 2021 were optimistic and those predictions continue into 2022, experts also expected Covid-19’s effect on e-commerce growth to moderate, but early indications show that may not be the case.
Overall sales in January were up, in line with a 14.1 percent year-over-year increase to a record $866 billion, while online and other non-store sales are up 14.5 percent month-over-month. In addition, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that December sales were up 16.7 percent year-over-year and that “despite occasional month-over-month declines, sales have grown year-over-year every month since June 2020.”
According to the NRF, “January sales were up in all but two categories on both a monthly and yearly basis, with year-over-year gains led by clothing and building materials stores and online sales.”
