Visa and Mastercard report 4% growth in US holiday retail sales

NEW YORK, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Sales for U.S. retailers have increased by about 4% so far this holiday season as Americans balanced tighter budgets with a desire to upgrade gadgets and refresh wardrobes, according to preliminary figures released by Visa and Mastercard (MA) ?on Tuesday.

Shoppers were more deliberate with their purchases, often using artificial intelligence tools to discover and ?compare prices so that they could stretch discretionary budgets, Visa's chief economist, ?Wayne Best, said in a statement. ?Michelle Meyer, chief economist ?at Mastercard Economics ?Institute, added that consumers shopped early and leaned on promotions to get the best deals.?

Retailers rolled ?out early promotions to lock in sales ?amid?muted expectations heading into the holiday season due to weak consumer confidence and tariff-fueled inflation. Yet sales data from Cyber ?Week - the five-day stretch including Thanksgiving ?and Black ?Friday - showed consumers largely shrugged off economic worries.?

Tuesday's figures , drawn from billions of transactions across Visa and Mastercard's (MA) networks, suggested that spending ?resilience carried into December.?

Visa reported total U.S. retail spending, excluding autos, gasoline and restaurants, rose 4.2% in the November 1 to December 21 period, slightly below its October forecast of 4.6% growth for the full two-month period.

Mastercard (MA), which included sales at retail and food service establishments in its ?data, ?said sales climbed 3.9% year-over-year during the same period, topping its prior forecast of 3.6%. The sets of figures from Visa and ?Mastercard were not adjusted for inflation.

Both companies noted that early promotions and the convenience of shopping from home helped lift online sales, which outpaced growth at brick-and-mortar stores. Still, Visa said physical outlets remained dominant, accounting for 73% of transactions compared with 27% online.

Sales of electronics like TVs and smartphones led spending, rising 5.8% in ?Visa's data, followed by clothing and accessories at 5.3%. Mastercard (MA) said seasonal deals and colder weather encouraged wardrobe refreshes, while jewelry also drew more buyers this year.

(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale ?in New York and Anuja Bharat Mistry in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis)