Retail sales increased nearly 4% this holiday season, compared to last year: Mastercard report

Holiday retail sales in the U.S. increased 3.8%, compared to last year, according to a report Thursday from Mastercard.

The major credit card company marks the holiday as Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 and said the number is preliminary and excludes car sales. 

Online sales have also increased about 6.7%, over the same period, Mastercard also reports. 

The company attempted to suggest the gains by saying customers who had the money to spend did so, but were looking for bargins, and retailers were wiling to respond with promotions. 

“The holiday shopping season revealed a consumer who is willing and able to spend but driven by a search for value as can be seen by concentrated e-commerce spending during the biggest promotional periods,” Michelle Meyer, a chief economist at the Mastercard Economics Institute said in a statement. 

The spending came amid inflation that has continued to decline since the end of the pandemic but remains above the goal of 2% annually. 

Last year, retail sales increased by 3.1%, according to Yahoo Finance.