Christmas Sales In The United States Increased Significantly By &Nbsp; Holiday Shopping Season Was Strong This Year.

* sales in the week before Christmas increased by 14.8%--ShopperTrak over the same period last year.

* consumer spending increased by 25.5% to $7 billion 100 million in December 26th --ShopperTrak

* chain stores grew more than 4% a week.

* online retail spending grew by 16% in the week ending December 25th.

Data released on Wednesday showed that the United States had a holiday during the end of this year.

According to ShopperTrak data, sales in the week ended December 24th increased by 14.8% over the same period last year, to around 44 billion dollars, because this Christmas Eve coincided with Saturday.

ShopperTrak special attention

This year's December 26th is a public holiday. ShopperTrak said sales increased by 25.5% to $7 billion 100 million on that day.

During the holiday season, businesses generally discounted significantly, pushing sales growth, but doing so would hurt retailers.

"The real question is what the profit margins of these sales are, because the sales promotion is very strong this season," said Al Ferrara, an American retail research expert. "Retailers are obviously cutting prices to grab market share.

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Under the margin of doubt, the latest data had little effect on retail stocks, and the S & P retail index fell 1.05%, only a little better than the 1.25% decline in the standard & Poor's 500 index.

ShopperTrak said that as of December 24th, the store's sales grew by 37.8% compared with the week before December 17th, suggesting that those who held back were also moved by the discount.

"If consumers feel that they can get some value from money, they will be willing to go out to spend," says Bill Martin, founder of ShopperTrak.

In addition to ShopperTrak, the other two sets of data also hinted at strong sales last week.

ICSC/ Goldman Sachs weekly chain store sales index increased by 4.5%.Redbook Research in the week before December 24th compared with the same period last year, while the annual growth rate of chain stores was 4.3%.

ICSC/ Goldman Sachs index increased by 0.9% over seasonally adjusted week.

"The result is very strong, and this season itself is pretty good," said Michael Niemira, chief economist at ICSC.

"November is weak, but it will be fine in December.

"Martin of ShopperTrak says sales have risen 4.7% in December and 4.1% in November.

In mid December, ShopperTrak expects total sales to rise by 3.7% in the two months. The retail Confederation of America is expected to increase by 3.8%, and the ICSC is expected to increase by 3.5%.

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Analysts previously predicted that Macy 's and WAL-MART would be the biggest winners in the holiday season, as they launched an appropriate level of promotional activity to their customers.

Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch may not be good.

According to NPD Group, a market research firm, passenger traffic rose in the week of December 26th. 6.5%.NPD data showed that the measure of customer shopping ratio was 67.9%, a slight decrease compared with the previous week, but higher than that in the first half of December.

"Macy, s and other major sellers are in good sales," Niemira added. "Store performance may be more uneven. Clothing stores seem to be impacted by unusually warm weather.

Sales are slowing down, so more discounts have been launched.

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The largest shopping center and regional shopping center was the strongest in the first week of 2011. He said factory outlets are still busy but less busy than the previous week.

* economic recovery and the rise of e-commerce.

The retail sales figures released on Wednesday confirm the slow recovery of the US economy in recent economic data. The US economic consultative conference on Tuesday announced that US consumer confidence hit a eight month high in December, an increase more than expected, as the American people are more optimistic about the job market and their financial situation.

The report released in early December shows that the unemployment rate in the United States has been at its lowest level since March 2009.

But the US housing prices are still falling, which has depressed the optimism of the economy, including some retail businesses including Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD.O: market).

Some of the chains that Sears and Borders Group (BGPIQ.PK: quotas) are facing may be competing with online retailers. This holiday season has seen a faster growth in online retailer sales, suggesting that e-commerce has taken some market share from the entity department store.

According to data released by comScore on Wednesday, although online sales are still only a small part of overall sales, they continue to grow faster than department stores.

ComScore reported that US online spending reached a record high of $35 billion 270 million from November 1st to December 26th, up 15% from a year earlier.

In the week ending December 25th, consumers spent $2 billion 830 million online, up 16% from a year earlier, comScore said.