Retailers hoping Thanksgiving weekend sales would push overall holiday spending to new highs instead got evidence that this year's sales will be "perfectly average," retail analyst Dana Telsey said on Cyber Monday.
Retailers pulled forward promotions this year, perhaps dampening Black Friday sales, but nothing suggests estimates for total 2015 holiday sales growth have changed at the close of the big four-day kickoff period.
"Last year was 4.1%. This year it will probably be around 3.5%," the CEO of Telsey Advisory Group told the media early Monday.
Cyber Monday deals are expected to attract 121 million online shoppers this year, according to a U.S. National Retail Federation survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.
The Internet buying bonanza started early this year. The federation reported 103 million people shopped online over the Thanksgiving weekend, edging out bricks-and-mortar crowds, which totaled 102 million. The survey adds more than 150 million people shopped either in stores and/or online over the weekend.
Accurate comparisons with previous years were not possible because the federation changed the methodology for its Black Friday survey this year to account for changing trends in shopping.
