Spending in most of the key holiday categories for the first two weeks of the retail month of November was down on a year-over-year basis, according to a SpendingPulse report released Tuesday by MasterCard Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard found.


Apparel and luxury (excluding jewelry) were particularly hard hit, both showing year-over-year declines in the high 7 percent range. Jewelry, a category that has recently shown signs of making a comeback, was up mildly, and e-commerce gained at a modest clip.  The dip in early November runs contrary to both September and October, when SpendingPulse recorded that spending was up in 9 of 11 categories for both months.  

¡°Our research shows that Sandy clearly depressed the start to the early holiday season with the storm significantly impacting the year-over-year growth rates in key holiday categories over the first week of November. By the end of the second week, there were signs of a bounce back in several categories,¡± said Michael McNamara, Global Solutions Leader, MasterCard SpendingPulse. ¡°Over the last several years there has been a trend to launch the season earlier, before Thanksgiving ¨C but 2012 is likely to be a more traditional season that kicks off closer to Black Friday and sprints its way to December 24.¡±


Key holiday season categories
For the pre-season period Oct. 28 through Nov. 10, 2012, Women¡¯s Apparel sales were down 6.3 percent against the same period last year.  For the week that included Sandy, Women¡¯s Apparel sales were down over 9 percent.  This number is a deceleration from October¡¯s 5.8 percent year over year gain. 


Jewelry sales also had a difficult first week with a year over year decline of -6.7 percent during the first week of the month but then bounced back to a 7.9 percent year-over-year gain during the second week.    


Finally, the Electronics category for the period through November 10, fell 3.4 percent, reversing October¡¯s 2.4 percent increase.  ¡°Black Friday is traditionally the largest day of the year for Electronics with sales well over $1 billion.  This ¡°season in a day¡± can be almost twice as large as the next busiest day of the year which typically occurs later in December,¡± noted McNamara.  


A macro©\economic indicator, MasterCard SpendingPulse reports on national retail sales and is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with estimates for all other payment forms, including cash and check. MasterCard SpendingPulse does not represent MasterCard financial performance. SpendingPulse is provided by MasterCard Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard Worldwide