Retail Sale Increases in the US

US retail sales have posted strong growth in January 2022, despite Covid-19’s omicron variant, inflation and other challenges. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), clothing and clothing accessories retail increased 0.7 % month over month after seasonal adjustment and up 19.1% unadjusted year-over-year.

The US Census Bureau said overall retail sales in January were up 3.8 % seasonally adjusted from December and up 13 %year-over-year. By comparison, December sales were down 2.5 % from November but up 16.7 % year-over-year. Despite occasional month-over-month declines, sales have grown year-over-year every month since June 2020, according to Census data.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) predicted retail sales for 2021 to grow between 6.5% and 8.2% to more than $4.33 trillion. This reflects increasing vaccination rates and business re-openings. Online sales were expected to grow between 18% and 23% ($1.14 trillion and $1.19 trillion). Engaging technologies, including touches of virtual reality, hands-on encounters and in-store app functionality are drawing customers to the new brick and mortar stores of 2022.  

This growth indicates that customers are willing to spend and the economy is in good shape. This also indicates that in the US customers are looking forward to spending. Fashion is a major category in overall retail. According to eMarketer US fashion retail in 2021 was $437.29 billion and the sales figures for 2022 are forecast at $473.42 billion. This represents a fashion industry growth rate of 8.3 % from 2021’s figures.