A new report by MasterCard Advisors found that sales in most retail sectors posted positive year-over-year growth last month compared with last year, and the apparel and luxury categories posted the biggest gains.
According to a report in ChainStoreAge, the SpendingPulse survey, which bases its results on a combination of surveys and aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, year-over-year overall apparel sales in October were up a sharp 8.2%, building on the 3.8% gain in September. October saw the year’s largest year-over-year increase for the sector, which has experienced seven out of 10 months of year-over-year gains so far in 2010.
“Overall, October showed a noticeable improvement compared to the same month last year,” said Michael McNamara, VP of research and analysis for MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse. “E-commerce continued to post solid year-over-year growth, similar to the strong performance in September, while positive financial market performance seemed to help higher-end sectors such as Luxury and some sub-sectors of Jewelry.”