Fewer Shoppers Hit Malls This Christmas

While sales for this year's holiday season rose, less people visited malls.

ByABC News
February 9, 2009, 2:02 PM

Jan. 9, 2008— -- The Christmas shopping season is over and consumer spending reports are trickling in. Thursday morning will be a big day, as retailers report sales for December, providing a clear sign of how they did this holiday season.

In the meantime, this morning, Chicago-based ShopperTrak reported retail sales rose 4.5 percent, compared with last year, above the company's 3.6 percent forecast. ShopperTrak monitors foot traffic in malls, and makes sales estimates. It does not have data for foot traffic in stand-alone, big box stores like Wal-Mart and Target.

The group reports that shoppers spent $10.3 billion on the day after Thanksgiving, known as "Black Friday," making it the biggest spending day. "Super Saturday" the Saturday before Christmas was number two with $9.36 billion in sales.

The news led Bill Martin, Shopper Trak's co-founder, to declare, "The holiday 2007 retail sales performance overwhelmingly proves the U.S. consumer is resilient. Based on stagnant traffic and various economic concerns, retailers were understandably a bit nervous heading into the season, but the strength of Black Friday weekend, added to the shopping surge experienced on Super Saturday, helped sales exceed our expectations."

Another way to interpret the data is that big promotions and sales by worried retailers at the start and at the finish of the holiday season, brought shoppers in, looking for deals.

And while sales were up, actual foot traffic in malls was down by 2.7 percent, a trend that occurred for most of the year. Fewer shoppers are going to the mall, but they are spending more, or buying more expensive items.

On Tuesday, ComScore, a firm that tracks e-commerce spending, reported that online sales increased 19 percent from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, compared to last year, coming in at $29.2 billion.

The biggest online sales day was Monday, Dec. 10, with $881 million spent. The firm called the day "Green Monday." The better-known "Cyber Monday" (the Monday immediately after Black Friday) came in 9th in holiday spending at $733 million.