Black Friday sales numbers look weak

There are always a lot of early reports on Christmas shopping that contradict each other, so let’s see what they say next week.Maybe the early shoppers are just holding out for better deals.
Stay tuned…

There were more shoppers in the nation’s malls and big-box stores on Black Friday than there were last year, according to a report issued Saturday. But retailers still aren’t sure that starting the holiday shopping season on Thanksgiving night proved successful.
ShopperTrak, which measures and analyzes foot traffic at more than 50,000 retail locations nationwide, says Black Friday store visits climbed 3.5% from last year to more than 307.67 million.
But Black Friday retail sales fell 1.8% to $11.2 billion, the firm said.

Having said that, Black Friday online sales topped $1 billion for the first time ever.  From Reuters:

Online sales jumped at least 22 percent on Black Friday – from sales of $816 million on the same day last year, according to comScore data.
E-commerce accounts for less than 10 percent of consumer spending in the United States. However, it is growing much faster than bricks-and-mortar retail as shoppers are lured by low prices, convenience, faster shipping and wide selection.