Online sales increased by 56.8%! The US jewelry and apparel industry is recovering

An injection of stimulus funds, coupled with a broader reopening across the country, boosted U.S. retail sales in March , with sales growth increasing by double digits .

U.S. online sales up 56.8%

Data from Mastercard Spending Pulse showed that U.S. retail sales ( excluding autos and gasoline ) increased 26.3% year-on-year in March, with online sales increasing 56.8% .

Due to the unique retail conditions under the pandemic last March , Mastercard also included sales data from 2019 for comparison to show a longer-term growth trend. Sales in March 2021 increased by 14% compared to March 2019, with online sales increasing by 85.9%.

Data showed that U.S. sales in the first half of March increased by 1.6% compared with the same period last year , a relatively small increase, mainly because consumers flocked to stores to buy products and stock up in the face of the epidemic during the same period last year .

In contrast, in the second half of March , retail sales increased by 46.9% year-on-year . This growth reflects both the positive boost from economic stimulus consumer spending and the decline in national retail sales in the same period of 2020 .

Costume jewelry sales increased significantly

In addition, the unique situation of the retail industry in March last year can also be seen in the year-on-year comparison of various industries. For example, in March 2020, when people first began to stay away from face-to-face social interaction , spending in non-essential industries such as clothing and jewelry declined , which led to a significantly higher growth rate in March this year . Clothing sales increased by 60.6% compared with the same period last year . Compared with March 2019, they rose by 18.7%.

The opposite is true for basic necessities such as grocery stores, which saw sales surge last year as consumers stocked up . Grocery sales fell into negative territory this month , compared with strong growth in March 2020. However, grocery sales were still up 7.5% compared to March 2019 .

It can be seen that with the introduction of vaccines and the gradual improvement of the pandemic, people's activities outside have increased. Therefore, the sales of the jewelry and clothing industry have increased significantly compared with the same period last year, which shows that consumer demand for this type of product has gradually become strong. On the contrary, the inventory of daily necessities has decreased.

Therefore, the clothing and jewelry industry, which was at a low point last year, may usher in a peak season as the industry opens up on a large scale.

USA

Jewelry

clothing

Online Sales

March Retail