Win the Week™ Retail Newsletter (Nov. 23, 2024)
Dear Reader,
Welcome to our latest edition of the Win the Week newsletter, covering consumer spending trends for the week ending November 23, 2024. This week's data reflects pre-Black Friday shopping activity and shows significant growth across several key categories.
Let's dive into the numbers and analyze the most recent retail spending trends and consumer shopping behaviors.
The latest highlights are featured below.
General Retail Spending
Building on last week’s spending increases, general retail spending surged this week, with positive growth almost across-the-board in both week-over-week (WoW) spend growth and the average ticket growth (ATG).
Specifically, when compared to last week’s general retail spending data, nearly every brand tracked had remarkable upticks in ATG, with Walmart, Target, and Temu on the low end with increases of 0.9%, 1.2%, and 1.9%, respectively, while Amazon was the bigger winner this week, with average ticket growth of 7%.
Pivtoing to WoW spend growth, Target was the only brand to see a drop this week, with a 0.2% decline in weekly spend growth. On the other hand, Walmart, Temu, and Amazon all experienced increases in WoW growth, with Walmart up 1.9%, Temu up 2.1%, and Amazon up 17.2%.
Combining that data, here’s how general retail spending changed last week when compared to the previous 7-day period:
Weekly spend growth: 9.3%
Average ticket growth: 3.7%
Fast Fashion Spending
With more ups and downs this week, fast fashion spending had a slight dip in average ticket growth, with negative growth for one brand, while WoW growth increased, despite backslides for a couple of brands.
For average ticket growth, H&M was the only fast fashion brand to experience a dip, with ATG down 2.6%. In contrast, SHEIN, Uniqlo, and Zara had upticks in average ticket growth, rising by 1.3%, 1.7%, and 2.9%, respectively.
With weekly spend growth, Zara and H&M had negative growth this week, with declines of 1.8% and 7.2%, respectively, while SHEIN and Uniqlo pulled out ahead, with positive growth of 0.8% and 4.2%, respectively.
Overall, that meant that fast fashion spending last week had:
Weekly spend growth: 4.8%
Average ticket growth: -0.1%
TikTok Shop Spending
Like general retail spending this week, spending on TikTok Shop spiked, with:
Weekly spend growth: 23.0%
Average ticket growth: 10.1%
This growth has reversed a months-long trend of spending spikes, followed by drops, from week to week in TikTok Shop. It also seems to indicate somewhat of a snowballing buildup in this retail sector approaching the holiday shopping season.
Other Retail Categories
Showing a few more declines this week, when compared to last week, retail spending other categories was up for some — like Grocery Stores, Wholesale Clubs, and Hardware/Home Supply Stores — while it was down for others — like Fast Food, Restaurants, and Discount Stores.
With ATG, Fast Food & Restaurants had the largest declines this week, dropping off 2.7%, while the average ticket growth at Discount Stores fell by 1.1%. Overshadowing those dips were the upticks in ATG for Hardware/Home Supply Stores (up 0.4%), Wholesale Clubs (up 1.3%), and Grocery Stores (3.1%).
WoW spend growth generally mirrored ATG, with either slightly greater positive or negative growth. In particular, here’s how weekly spend growth shifted across other retail categories this week:
Grocery spend growth: 6.2%
Wholesale Club spend growth: 7.8%
Discount Store spend growth: -1.9%
Hardware & Home Supply growth: 1.5%
Key Takeaways & Comparisons
Putting this week’s retail transaction data in context with recent consumer intelligence, new insights and shifting trends for several retail sectors begin to emerge, including for:
General Retail: Strong performance with 9.3% growth, led by Amazon's impressive 17.2% increase. This suggests robust pre-Black Friday shopping activity.
Fast Fashion: Mixed performance with overall category growth at 4.8%, though individual retailers showed varying results.
Amazon: Standout performance with 17.2% weekly spend growth and 7.0% increase in average ticket size, suggesting strong early holiday promotions.
Grocery and Wholesale Club: Significant growth (6.2% and 7.8% respectively), likely reflecting Thanksgiving preparation shopping.
TikTok Shop: Exceptional growth at 23.0% with a 10.1% increase in average ticket size, indicating the platform's growing importance in holiday shopping.
This week's data provides a clear picture of pre-holiday shopping momentum:
The strong performance across General Retail, particularly Amazon, indicates that consumers are actively engaging in holiday shopping before Black Friday.
The significant growth in Grocery and Wholesale Club spending reflects typical Thanksgiving week shopping patterns.
TikTok Shop's exceptional performance continues to be a notable trend, with both spending and average ticket size showing substantial increases. This suggests the platform is becoming an increasingly important channel for holiday shopping, especially among younger consumers.
The mixed performance in Fast Fashion, with some retailers showing growth while others decline, might indicate selective consumer behavior in apparel purchases. Uniqlo's 4.2% growth stands out positively in this category.
The decline in Fast Food & Restaurant spending (-2.7%) could be attributed to more consumers preparing for home-based Thanksgiving celebrations, as evidenced by the strong growth in grocery spending.
As we move into the core holiday shopping season with Black Friday and Cyber Monday ahead, these retail trends suggest strong consumer engagement in holiday shopping across multiple channels. The significant growth in average ticket sizes across several categories indicates consumers' willingness to spend more per transaction during this period.
Remember, Facteus analyzes over $3.1 trillion in consumer spending from more than 120 million individual consumers, providing comprehensive insights across various industries.
If you have any questions or would like to explore how Facteus' data can support your business decisions, please don't hesitate to reach out.
Best regards,
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