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he 2021 holiday sales season was exceptional for retailers. According to the , 2021 holiday sales reached a record-breaking $886.7 billion. 

In 2022, the holiday spending outlook was much less rosy. 

For the entire year, retailers faced high inflation, supply chain constraints, consumer fears about the economy, and . Heading into November, there were wide-ranging reports of retailers offering heavy discounts to avoid a significant letdown in end-of-year sales.

As the dust settles from the 2022 holiday shopping season, and on how retailers fared, ���DZ��� set out to answer the question: What was the holiday shopping season like for small business retailers? 

���DZ��� looked at two years of holiday season (November and December) deposit data from more than 8,000 of its self-employed and small business retail customers, which encompassed primarily e-commerce sellers and select brick-and-mortar stores. The majority of the retailers surveyed earned $250,000 or less in annual revenue and were all based in the U.S. 

When comparing year-over-year deposits from November and December 2022 versus 2021, ���DZ��� found:

• Year-over-year deposit growth outpaces inflation: Small retailers saw a year-over-year increase of 11.8% in deposits, outpacing inflation during the same period. 
• Small retailers may have fared better than large retailers: Percentage year-over-year deposit growth from small retailers was more than 4x the percentage year-over-year revenue growth that for e-commerce companies of all sizes (2.5%). 
• Retailers got off to a faster start this holiday season: In November 2022, deposits for the small businesses ���DZ��� tracked were 19% higher than deposits in November 2021, indicating that small businesses were both selling more and getting paid faster in 2022.  

During a year where small businesses faced a slew of economic challenges, it’s truly impressive to see them exceed their holiday deposits from the record-breaking 2021. This growth shows the extraordinary resilience of small businesses, and the team at ���DZ��� looks forward to helping them continue to grow and succeed in 2023 and beyond.