2009 Holiday Forecast Not Too Bad

The upcoming holiday season looks like it’ll slot into the "could be better, could be worse" category.  The National Retail Federation believes holiday sales will be down a bit compared to previous seasons, but up compared to the precedent that’s been set during the past year or so.

Here’s the simple, uninterpreted part of the forecast: the NRF said in a statement that it expects "holiday retail industry sales to decline one percent this year to $437.6 billion."

The statement then continued, "While this number falls significantly below the ten-year average of 3.39 percent holiday season growth, the decline is not expected to be as dramatic as last year’s 3.4 percent drop in holiday retail sales nor as severe as the 3.0 percent decline in annual retail industry sales expected for all of 2009."

We’re going to look on the bright side of things.  After all, small businesses that have survived the recession so far should be able to take a one percent fluctuation in stride.  Certain small businesses may even be able to come out of the holiday season on top if they refine the same strategies that kept them afloat last year.

Time to get out the records and start forming a game plan if you haven’t already.