Executive Summary

• This week’s note “From the Desk of Deborah Weinswig” discusses post-Christmas retail activity, including gift returns, new shopping holidays and gift card redemptions.
• Americans supplied a final flurry of spending to give retailers their best holiday season sales since 2011. US year-end holiday retail sales rose by 4.9% compared with the same period last year. Online retail sales similarly increased, rising by 18.1%.
• The number of Boxing Day bargain-hunting shoppers on UK high streets and at shopping centers fell at a rate “greater than expected” this year. Footfall fell by 4.5% during the day through 5 p.m., marking the fifth drop on Boxing Day over the last six years.
• French retailer Carrefour unveiled a new hypermarket in Warsaw earlier in December that features a range of new digital retail solutions. Shoppers can order any products unavailable in-store through one of the 19 interactive screens at the hypermarket.