Specialty Retail and Department Stores: World Cup and Prime Day boost June spending

Research evidence excerpt

Specialty Retail and Department Stores: World Cup and Prime Day boost June spending

Accessible version

Specialty Retail and Department Stores

World Cup and Prime Day boost June

spending

Industry Overview

World Cup and Prime Day continue to prop up consumer 10 July 2026

Total retail (excluding auto) spending increased 5.9% y/y in June, according to BAC Equity

aggregated credit and debit card data, compared to +6.7% y/y in May (Exhibit 1). United States

Spending accelerated across most categories in June and benefitted from a combination Retailing

of spending on fan gear for the World Cup and an earlier Prime Day which fell in June vs

July last year. Many retailers add promotions during Prime Day to stay competitive,

which likely shifted sales into June from July. We expect a lull in the early weeks of July,

reflecting waning benefit from these factors, until the Back-to-School season begins in

late July. See BofA on USA report for methodology, limitations, and disclaimers related

to BAC aggregated credit and debit card data and commentary on broader retail trends

from BofA Global Research's US Economics team. LorraineResearch AnalystHutchinson, CFA

BofAS

Continued contraction in the K-shaped economy +1lorraine.hutchinson@bofa.com646 855 0951

Clothing spending was +6.9% in June versus +5.4% in May. The weeks of June 20th and Kendall Toscano

27th showed sharp acceleration from promotions around Prime day, driving the strong Research Analyst

month. The spread between low-income and high-income clothing spend continued to +1 646 855 1704

contract through the month and is now nearly at parity in the final week of June after kendall.toscano@bofa.com

running a several percentage point gap over the last several months (Exhibit 3). This Mary Sport

Research Analyst