Holiday Shopping Fact Sheet
Reports from the holiday shopping front, 2006:
Typically, Super Saturday, which accounted for $8.72 billion in sales on December 23, is the busiest shopping day of the season. This year, however, it came in just behind the $8.96 billion sold on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.
The busiest online shopping day was Wednesday, December 13, with $667 million in sales, according to ComScore Networks. Online spending made up about 7 percent of total spending this season.
Helping propel online profits was impressive growth in sales of jewelry and watches (up 66 percent over last year) and of video games (up 65 percent), ComScore found.
Both on- and offline, home improvement and furnishings did poorly, which analysts blame on a tepid housing market closing out the year.
About 9 percent of consumers said they planned to do some of their holiday shopping after December 25, says Marshal Cohen of NDP Group.