NRF: Holiday sales surge, but may not last

By Staff -- Playthings, 12/1/2008 1:52:00 PM

WASHINGTON—The National Retail Federation has announced that, according to its annual Black Friday Weekend survey, sales over the holiday weekend rose to an estimated $41 billion, helped by a 7 percent increase in shoppers’ average spending, compared to 2007.

The NRF’s study found that more than 172 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 147 million shoppers last year. They spent an average of $372.57 over the weekend, up from $347.55 during the comparable period of 2007.

"Pent-up demand on electronics and clothing, plus unparalleled bargains on this season’s hottest items helped drive shopping all weekend," said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. "Holiday sales are not expected to continue at this brisk pace, but it is encouraging that Americans seem excited to go shopping again."

Friday was the busiest day of the weekend, NRF said, with 73.6 million people hitting stores and websites for “doorbuster” sales. Though traffic did subside after Friday, 56.9 million people shopped on Saturday, up from 48.3 million last year, while another 26.2 million people planned to shop on Sunday.

Thanksgiving Day continued to increase in importance as the number of people who shopped on Thursday, November 27, was up 48 percent over last year (16.2 million people vs. 10.9 million people).

According to the study, Americans have completed slightly more holiday shopping than they had one year ago (39.3 percent vs. 36.4 percent), indicating that traffic and sales over the next several weeks will moderate.

"Though retailers should be encouraged by strong traffic and sales over the weekend, consumers are still being cautious," said Phil Rist, executive vice president, strategic initiatives, at BIGresearch, the firm that compiled the NRF study. "Weekend shoppers indicated that they are still sticking to a budget and thinking carefully before making any holiday purchases."

Though retailers in all categories were featuring big bargains, a majority of shoppers visited discount stores for holiday deals. According to the survey, more than half (55 percent) of this weekend’s shoppers visited discount stores. Nearly half (43 percent) shopped at a traditional department store, up 11 percent from last year. About one-third of shoppers visited specialty stores like clothing or electronics stores (36 percent) and shopped online (34 percent).

As expected, many shoppers (nearly 51 percent) purchased clothing and accessories over the weekend while 39 percent bought books, DVDs, CDs and video games, and 36 percent purchased consumer electronics. 28.5 percent of shoppers bought a toy. Sales of gift cards were down 10 percent from last year.

NRF continues to project that holiday sales will rise just over 2 percent this year to $470.4 billion.

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