July's retail sales came in higher than expected, highlighting a resilient consumer as inflation continues to pressure households across the US. Mastercard Economics Institute chief economist Michelle Meyer joins Market Domination to break down the state of consumer spending and some of the categories seeing the most growth.

Meyer notes strong growth in the e-commerce world, pointing to an 8% year-over-year growth in online shopping during the month of July, based on data from the July Mastercard SpendingPulse survey. Online apparel saw some of the biggest growth, increasing 5% from 2023. She adds that consumers have several choices when it comes to their shopping preferences, highlighting time management as a priority alongside their personal finances and budgets constraints.

She adds that the narrative around consumer spending has "always been nuanced." Toward the end of the pandemic, US consumers were focused on purchasing big-ticket items, and some even turned to purchasing experiences. Meyer explains, "I think where we're settling now is one which hopefully will feel a little bit more balanced, a bit more normal, a new normal, but maybe a little bit more normal and stable where you don't necessarily have as large of swings across the different sectors." She points to the growth of online apparel perhaps as a function of back-to-school shopping or launches of appealing items.

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl