Black Friday retail sales edge up 0.3 percent
NEW YORK — Shoppers crowded stores on Black Friday but spent only a little more than last year on the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, data released Saturday shows.
The slim increase came despite a 2.2 percent boost in store traffic, the Chicago research firm says.
Some shoppers shifted purchases to earlier in the month in response to promotions, the firm says. Spending for first two weeks of the month rose 6.1 percent over last year.
Meanwhile, online merchants saw a 16 percent revenue spike, according to research company Coremetrics.