Business

Thanskgiving weekend sales very good, but will customers keep up the pace?
by Zuzana Zelenakova

Thanksgiving weekend this year was quite successful for retailers. In comparison with the last year numbers, people spent more money at gifts either for themselves or their families and friends. However, shoppers went mostly after bargains. Retailers are still worried about whether shoppers will keep up the pace before Christmas as the economy has not yet recovered completely. And of course, the unemployment rate of 9.6 percent prevents sales to go too high as well. As preliminary figures by research firm ShopperTrak show retailers earned $10.7 billion on Friday, which is 0.3 percent increase as compared to the previous year. ShopperTrak covers about 70.000 stores. Also, 2! .2 percent more customers came to the shops. Some people were lucky enough to get everything they wanted and so there is no need for them to return to malls before Christmas and experience crazy and crowded shopping sprees that are so characteristic of this time of the year. "I am completely done." said 57-years-old Sharon Collins from Wilmongton, N.C. "Unless it is something I really need, I am not going back." Online sales were encouraging as well rising 14 percent from Thanksgiving Day and Saturday, as IBM´s Coremetrics informed. Once again this was the result of people taking advantage of Black Friday deals. "We're expecting the biggest Cyber Monday. We're seeing double-digit growth rates, and we don't expect it to stop," said Jerry Storch, CEO of Toys R Us. "I believe customers will be waiting for the next round of deals," said Laura Gurski, retail practice leader at AT Kearney. "I think retailers have won the battle of driving customers into the stores, but have ! they won the war? We won't know until January," sums up the wo! rries of all retailers Richard Jaffe, analyst at Stifel Nicolaus.

related story (sgx18673): http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_holiday_shopping;_ylt=AgVq9D_4...

by Zuzana Zelenakova for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

Cantell TV is the fastest growing provider of digital broadcasting coupled with telecommunications, allowing people to easily control, view, upload and share digital content through proprietary interface coupled with free phone calls. Cantell TV is committed to ! delivering infinite choices to your world of entertainment at the tip of your fingers.

posted by Blog TechSource @ 3:11 PM