The National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, expect shoppers will spend more this year than last year, but their pace will slow given all the economic uncertainty. The group said Thursday that it expects holiday sales to be 3% to 4% for November through December, compared with 5.4% growth of a year ago. Sales for the two-month period will increase to between $957.3 billion and $966.6 billion. The pace is consistent with the average annual holiday increase of 3.6% from 2010 to pre-pandemic 2019. Americans ramped up spending during the pandemic, which accounted for some outsized sales numbers. For the holiday 2021 season, sales for the two-month period surged 12.7%.
