Budgets/Spending/Market Size

WASHINGTON — The National Retail Federation released its 2012 holiday forecast on Tuesday, which shows sales increasing 4.1% to $586.1 billion, down from last year's 5.6% growth.

However, the NRF's 2012 estimate tops the 10-year holiday sales growth average of 3.5%.

Los Angeles -- Survey results released Tuesday by online shopping site PriceGrabber found that 88% of shoppers plan to research their holiday gift purchases in advance to find the best deals.

Of those, 38% plan to spend three to six hours researching holiday gift purchases, 29% plan to spend up to two hours, 19% said they plan to spend over 10 hours and 14% indicated between seven and 10 hours.

Washington, D.C. -- Shop.org’s holiday 2012 online sales forecast, released Tuesday, expects sales to grow 12% over last holiday season to as much as $96 billion. Last year, according to the Dept. of Commerce, e-commerce sales grew 15% during the months of November and December.

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation released its 2012 holiday forecast on Tuesday, which shows sales increasing 4.1% to $586.1 billion, down from last year’s 5.6% growth.

However, the NRF’s 2012 estimate tops the 10-year holiday sales growth average of 3.5%.

New York -- Research released Monday by Citigroup and published by Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch found that digital sales for the holiday 2012 shopping season are expected to increase at least 20%, thanks to two additional shopping days and amped-up retail marketing efforts.

New York -- Data released Monday by the Associated General Contractors of America revealed that construction spending declined between July and August to an annualized rate of $837 billion, but increased compared with August 2011 driven largely by growing demand for residential, lodging and education construction.

The outlook for Christmas spending is decent and Halloween is supposed to be pretty good too.

Deloitte is forecasting holiday sales will increase between 3.5% and 4% as the economy's health and the presidential election take center stage among consumers this fall.

Despite some distractions this year, retailers should expect a modest increase in 2012 holiday sales, according to Deloitte’s annual holiday forecast release Tuesday morning.

WASHINGTON — The National Retail Federation estimates that U.S. retailers and their customers are benefiting from savings of up to $18 million every day since the implementation of the debit card swipe fee reform.

WASHINGTON — The air is getting colder and retailers are already gearing up for the Christmas season, but before they do that, they will have to get through Halloween.