As shoppers have less money to go around, they are cutting out weaker retailers, said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail.

Choosy consumers have made the gulf between successful and struggling retailers even more stark heading into the holiday shopping season, said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail.

Holiday spending in November and December is expected to increase by 2.5% to 3.5% compared with 2023 and range between $979.5 billion and $989 billion, according to the National Retail Federation, a retail trade group. That’s a smaller year-over-year increase than the 3.9% jump from the 2022 to 2023 holiday season, when spending totaled $955.6 billion. The NRF’s figure excludes automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants.