Last weekend during a day full of college football rivalry games, I found myself earning husband brownie points in Bloomingdale’s in New York City. While my wife shopped, I waited (somewhat) patiently, seated on a bench near the Christmas ornaments. Just about the time Vanderbilt took a 14-0 lead on the Vols, I spotted an ornament that would be the perfect gift for an old college football player friend: a black Santa, sitting cross legged, yoga style. When I asked about having the item shipped, the salesperson let me in on a secret: the ornament was available at Bloomingdale’s website, at a lower price, and with free shipping.

I don’t claim to understand retail, but that makes no sense to me. But the business of Christmas shopping (“winter holiday shopping” is the new retail term) is massive, and in some ways, surprising.

Contrary to popular belief, only about 18% of total U.S. retail sales occur in November and December. Traditional holiday items like toys, clothes and ugly sweaters see a jump in the fourth quarter, offset by generally declining revenues in “non-gift” retailers such as office supply stores, building materials and car dealerships.

Americans spend about $1,000 on Christmas, half of the estimated $2,000 spent by the typical Canadian family. (According to the National Retail Federation and the Bank of Montreal.) The breakdown of that spending is quite different. Of the $1,000 Americans spend, 80% is for gifts, compared to only 10% for Canadians. The bulk of Canadian holiday expenses are for travel.

Here is a statistic that didn’t surprise me: on average, men spend 10% more on Christmas gifts than do women. Gift cards and clothing are the two most popular gift categories, for both men and women. Americans spend more than $28 billion a year on holiday gift cards, $3 billion of which go unused each year.

At 22%, sporting goods products are popular gift items across the younger age categories (18 to 24, 25 to 34 and 35 to 44.) It drops to 8% for recipients over age 65.

Only once in the past 20 years did Christmas sales revenues decline: in 2008, during the Great Recession. The years with the two largest year-over-year percentage increases were 2020 and 2021. (“Free covid money!”)

This season’s sales are expected to be between 2.5% and 3.5% higher than a year ago, with retailers hiring an estimated 500,000 seasonal workers.

And what about online vs. in-store shopping? FedEx, UPS and USPS will deliver more than 3 billion packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. In last year’s fourth quarter, a record 17.1% of U.S. retail sales were conducted online, a percentage Bloomingdale’s apparently wants to continue increasing.

David Moon is president of Moon Capital Management. A version of this piece originally appeared in the USA TODAY NETWORK.