Holiday Shopping Season | featured news

A research firm says U.S. sales of consumer electronics fell 5.9 percent this past holiday season, as smartphones cannibalize sales of standalone gadgets like cameras, camcorders and GPS navigation devices.

Electronics retailer Best Buy reported a 1.2% drop in December same-store sales on slow customer traffic and weakness in the gaming and digital-imaging segments.

When top retailers post their December sales this week, Wall Street analysts are expecting them to report a healthy end to the holiday season, helped by discounts, improved consumer sentiment and tactics like extended hours and layaways.

Struggling Sears Holdings Co., which controls the Kmart and Sears chains, has posted a list of 79 stores that will be shuttered after a disappointing holiday season.

A mall trade group says that last minute shoppers gave merchants a solid lift during the final week before Christmas. Sales at stores opened at least a year rose 0.9 percent for the week ended Saturday compared with the previous week and was up 4.5 percent compared with the same period a year ago, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Index, released Wednesday.

Between 100 and 120 Sears and Kmart stores will be closed, the retailer said Tuesday, after terrible holiday sales during what is the most crucial time of the year for retailers.

Shoppers found a mixed bag of bargains and so-so deals on Monday, as a day off for many Americans and warm, dry weather lured some out for what was likely to be the third busiest shopping day of the holiday season. Chains were also hoping that shoppers coming in to redeem the millions of gift cards given as presents might be willing to spend a bit more cash of their own.

Retailers saw their fair share of last-minute shoppers on Saturday, the day before Christmas, but stores were not super-busy, putting a moderate cap on pre-holiday season that started with a bang and has waned ever since.

Uh-oh. Oklahoma's attorney general says the hot Black Friday deals could violate state law because many are offered at below cost, The Oklahoman reports. In an opinion published Dec. 13, Attorney General Scott Pruitt said offering items for sale below cost violates the unfair sales act. "Cost" is defined as the invoice or replacement cost to the retailer plus a 6% markup, the newspaper says.

U.S. online sales this holiday shopping season are up 15 percent compared to last year, after what may have been the busiest week of the season, said research firm comScore on Sunday. Shoppers have spent $30.9 billion online from Nov. 1 through Dec. 16, up from $26.9 billion at the same point last year, said the Reston, Va., company, which tracks Web use. Online sales surpassed $1 billion on four days last week. Total sales for the week climbed 15 percent to $6.31 billion compared to last year.