Retail’s Rebound Sustained Through April
Updated: Aug 25, 2021
WWD | May 6, 2021
Retail's rebound continues. U.S. retail sales rose 23% April 2021 from April last year, and nearly 11% compared to April 2019, gearing towards restaurants, e-commerce and department stores, according to Mastercard.
Online sales grew nearly 20% in April compared to April 2020. Department stores rose 202% in April last year. Spending at restaurants grew 118% last month compared to April 2020. (Mastercard SpendingPulse data)
“Restaurants have turned a corner,” Steve Sadove, Mastercard senior adviser and former chief executive officer of Saks Inc. stated. “Luxury is substantially up versus two years ago; jewelry is up and categories like home improvement have not slowed down. And you are still seeing enormous positive momentum on the digital side. But there is also dramatic growth with apparel where there is newness and novelty. People want to get away from sweatpants. They want to get dressed up and go out to dinner.”
On the other end, Sadove also shared, “I am concerned you are going to have inventory issues across the board because the demand pickup has been so rapid. We could have out of stock performances, but also good margins.”