Budgets/Spending/Market Size

It promises to be a mad dash to the finish for the nation’s retailers this week with half of holiday shoppers planning to wrap up their holiday shopping online and nearly one third of shoppers yet to begin spending, according to the latest survey results from the National Retail Federation.

Washington, D.C. -- The average holiday shopper had completed half (49.9%) of their shopping, slightly less than the 56.5% they’d completed by this time last year, boding well for retailers who are preparing for a very big holiday shopping weekend, according to the National Retail Federation’s latest holiday survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. Specifically, 32 million or 14% say they have not even started, while another 20 million, or 8.9%  say they are already finished.

Los Angeles — Retail real estate showed the strongest growth in capital values and rents of all property types globally in the third quarter of 2013, according to CBRE Group, Inc.

New York -- MasterCard plans to expand its world headquarters in Purchase, N.Y.,  suburbs and open a technology lab in Manhattan, the Associated Press reported.

The report said that MasterCard is investing several million dollars to open a new mobile e-commerce technology lab in New York City, which will lead to 122 new research and development and software jobs in Manhattan.

Bridgeview, Ill. -- Rose Paving Company, a provider of complete parking lot management solutions to commercial and industrial properties nationwide, announced it  raised $7,000 during its year-long, multi-event fundraising campaign benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The donation, presented to St. Jude in December, will help support the lifesaving mission of one of the world’s premier pediatric cancer research centers.

Retail sales in November increased a better-than-expected 0.7% seasonally-adjusted month-to-month, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. The figure includes categories such as automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants.

Analysts were expecting sales to rise 0.6% in last month. The latest retail sales numbers were 4.7% above November 2012 numbers.

Reston, Va. -- For the holiday season-to-date, $31.5 billion has been spent online, marking a 9% increase versus the corresponding days last year, according to comScore. However, as noted in previous releases, Thanksgiving Day was six days later this year than last and causes more heavy spending days to fall in the year ago period, thereby diluting growth rates at this point.

Green Monday (Dec. 9) saw $1.4 billion in desktop online spending, up 10% versus year ago, representing the third heaviest online spending day of the holiday season-to-date.

New York -- Despite a number of economic factors that have shaken consumer confidence lately, including the government shutdown and continued high unemployment rates, retailers and manufacturers believe holiday sales will rise slightly compared to last year, according to Capital Business Credit, a non-bank lender that services the retail sector.

Atlanta – The Home Depot plans to open new eight new stores and increase sales by approximately 5% during fiscal 2014. The retailer released guidance for both fiscal 2013 and 2014 on Dec. 10.

For fiscal 2013, Home Depot has reaffirmed guidance of 5.6% sales growth and 7% same-store sales growth.

Austin, Texas – Nine-in-10 (87%) holiday shoppers surveyed still have presents to buy. Recent surveys by RetailMeNot and The Omnibus Company found that nearly 200 million Americans have not completed their holiday shopping.

Nearly nine-in-10 (88%) winter holiday shoppers surveyed said they have had to buy gifts in the 11th hour. Parents seem to be the biggest procrastinators, as nearly all (95%) parents surveyed admitted to waiting until the last minute to buy holiday gifts.