Seasonal

Purchase, N.Y. -- A report released Tuesday by MasterCard Advisors said that increased spending in most categories produced a strong holiday season for retailers, with e-commerce and apparel faring the best. Retail sales from Nov. 5 through Dec. 24 rose 5.5% to $584.3 billion over the same period last year, according to MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse. The figures, which exclude auto sales, are ahead of industrywide projections for a 3.3% to 4% rise for the holiday selling season.

New York City -- Sunday’s east coast snowstorm disrupted sales throughout the entire area and disrupted one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Sections of New York and New Jersey got as much as two feet of snow over the past few days, keeping many shoppers at home. Spending may shift into January, Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD Group, told Bloomberg on Monday.

“Look for sales to be repeated by retailers. They’re going to be more aggressive,” Cohen said.

New York City -- A report released Monday by Advisor One said that while it’s still too early to know the final outcome of the Christmas shopping season, it’s already clear that it’s been a record season for online retail.

The Seasonal area of the National Hardware Show is in for a boost, according to the show organizers, who point to a growing emphasis on holiday décor and lawn-and-garden-related merchandise around the industry.

The Seasonal area will be expanded to include hundreds of the industry's most innovative products during the May 10 to 12 event in Las Vegas, according to organizers. 

Forget looking under the tree Christmas morning. Grab the smartphone and check the inbox for an e-gift card. Walmart this week promoted an offering of 19 customizable e-gift cards as a gift-giving solution that is sure to have appeal to those who wait until Santa is halfway down the chimney. The entire transaction is handled online, from the ordering of the card, to delivery in the recipient’s inbox through redemption, which is only valid for online purchases. 

As holiday promotions heated up in November and shoppers hit the Internet, there was a 44% surge in traffic to Walmart.com when compared with October, according to the online measurement firm comScore. The growth propelled Walmart to the 20th spot on comScore’ November ranking of the top 50 U.S. Web properties. The nearly 52 million unique visitors Walmart.com attracted in November 2010 was 5% more than in November 2009, according to comScore’s data.

An accurate view of whether Walmart is capturing a fair share of this holiday season’s anticipated sales growth is hard to come by given the lack of monthly results from the company, but a somewhat clearer picture emerges online based on traffic and sales estimates from third parties.

Union, N.J. -- Bed Bath & Beyond said Wednesday that profit for the quarter ended Nov. 27 rose 28% to $188.6 million, compared with $151.3 million in the year-ago period.

Results topped analyst expectations.

Revenue rose 11% to $2.2 billion, edging Wall Street expectations of $2.11 billion in revenue. Same-store sales increased 7%.

Walmart, Target and Best Buy attracted record levels of customers to their websites during November, according to data released this week by the online measurement firm comScore. Retailers have come to expect a surge in traffic to their sites as the holiday approach and during November that proved to be the case and then some.

Berwyn, Pa. -- Planalytics has issued its weather outlook for the all-important days after Christmas when many consumers head to the stores to redeem gift cards and exchange presents. Here’s how the firm sees the forecast shaping up for the Northeast and South: