October Retail Sales Suffer From Lack Of Stimulus, Surging Pandemic

Retail sales in October, as provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce and tracked by Retail Dive, rose 13.3% from last year, a sign of consumer strength that should bode well for the holiday season. E-commerce alone was up 31.2% last month. But the federal report was a disappointment against some analyst expectations, and some categories fared especially poorly. Electronics sales fell 3.4%, department store sales fell 9.5% and apparel continued its losing streak of the past several months with a 12.1% decline. “This is a slightly disappointing outcome given that October is the period when consumers start to buy heavier items of apparel in preparation for the cooler months ahead,” GlobalData Retail Managing Director Neil Saunders said in emailed comments. “In our view it suggests that the clothing sector is still a very long way off any meaningful recovery.” Read more at Retail Dive.