Several data points are indicating holiday sales were healthy this year and that online sales grew to their highest penetration levels ever.
Mastercard issued its annual SpendingPulse report that showed that overall holiday sales grew 3.4% and online sales surged 18.8%.
Online sales accounted for 14.6% of total spending in Mastercard’s payment channels.
Apparel sales grew 1% overall while apparel sales online jumped 17%.
Interestingly, overall sales in the department store channel dropped 1.8%, but online department store sales increased 6.9%.
On Black Friday, online sales accounted for 15.4% of the overall retail spend, while on Cyber Monday, e-commerce accounted for 24.5% of total retail spending, according to Mastercard.
Amazon also disclosed details about holiday sales in its business, saying billions of items were ordered on Amazon worldwide during the holiday season.
When it comes to fashion, best selling brands included Carhartt, Champion, Adidas and Amazon Essentials, the company said.
On the Amazon Marketplace, the company’s platform for third-party sellers, unit sales rose double digits worldwide and more than a billion items were sold.
