Apparel was  stand-out category in a mixed month of fortunes for US retailers in November.

According to official government data, US retail sales rose by just 0.1 per cent month-on-month, or 3.8 per cent year-on-year, including motor vehicles and petrol.

Within core retail categories, apparel sales grew by 1.9 per cent year-on-year.

“This may sound fairly subdued, but it is much better than the year-to-date growth rates which have seen volumes and prices slip,” observes Neil Saunders, CEO of retail consultancy Conlumino.

“That said, most of this is down to weather that is much more conducive to sales compared to last year’s most unseasonal temperatures which left much winter wear hanging on the rails.”

Saunders says that while at headline level November data suggested a good month for retail with strong overall growth across most parts of the sector, “in reality, it was a very choppy month with a great deal of variation between the weeks”.  

It was also a month affected by the election, the uncertainty from which hurt sales during October and the first week of November.

“Fortunately, once the election was over some of the latent demand produced a much better growth figure in week 3. During this week furniture retailers and home improvement retailers put in a particularly good performance, the latter being aided by the onset of colder weather. “Early discounting in the period before Black Friday also helped to stimulate demand during this week. The run-up to Thanksgiving also saw a solid performance from grocery stores which, despite some ongoing deflation, notched up some reasonable volume uplifts,” said Saunders.

As the month moved into Thanksgiving and Black Friday week, growth moderated to more subdued levels. “The Black Friday weekend was a fairly lackluster affair, partly because many shoppers had snagged bargains well before the event. The performance from physical retailers was poor over this period, with some anemic numbers coming from department stores.”

Saunders said rising gas prices were starting to show in the US retail sales figures.  

“This has the potential to act as a brake on retail consumer spending as we enter the Christmas period. Overall, however, Conlumino maintains its view that it will be a reasonable, though not spectacular, holiday period.”