Shoppers walk through at The Grove in Los Angeles before Christmas. Photo: Dania Maxwell / Bloomberg
MasterCard announced that U.S. shoppers spent over $800 billion during the 2017 holiday season — the most ever — per Reuters. That's up 4.9% from last year, marking the biggest year-over-year increase in holiday shopping since 2011.
Why it matters: It's finally some good news for sagging department stores with stocks across the industry rising as a result. Mastercard's report pegged online sales as only 11-12% of total retail sales, meaning that the vast majority of Americans did their holiday shopping in traditional brick-and-mortar locations.