Holiday Retail Sales Forecast

The holidays are the most important time of the year for retailers as well as some shoppers: about a third of some stores' profits are made in the last two months of the year, and discounts can make or break those results. A new forecast from market research firm NPD indicates that holiday shopping could show the slowest year-on-year growth since 2009, and a survey from consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers shows shoppers are increasingly looking for deals. Both were provided exclusively to Reuters.

What consumer products will be hot this Holiday season? Today's Reuters report notes that "PricewaterhouseCoopers expects health and wellness products, athletic apparel and select electronic items like Apple Inc's iPhone and high-definition televisions to be hot this year." I think both NPD and PricewaterhouseCoopers are blind not to mention that the Apple Watch could be one of the upsetting product surprises of the season.

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