Web Holiday Sales Off to Strong Start
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SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK  - U.S. online shoppers,  who set spending and traffic records on Thanksgiving Day and  the "Black Friday" that followed, were expected to break new  ground again as they returned to work on what some are calling  "Blue Monday."
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Bargain hunters who could not wait till the traditional Boxing Day sales have been busy online during Christmas Day, retailers say.
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Fueled by Web searches for iPods, Elmos, gift cards and video game consoles, online retailers are expecting sales to increase by about 20 percent this year.
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Retailers hoping for a strong start to the holiday shopping season that gets underway Friday are flashing deals to jolt consumers into spending.
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Booksellers are enjoying brisk business since the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, with sales starting the week of Thanksgiving up sharply over 2003.
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Retailers hope a surge of customers this weekend will kick off a strong final week in a holiday selling season that&#39;s been lackluster to this point.
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U.S. holiday shoppers continue to turn to the Internet when searching for presents for family and friends, according to data released Thursday by VeriSign.
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Internet retailer announces its best holiday season; electronics were the key.
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U.S. retailers are starting their  holiday Internet marketing campaigns earlier this year, rolling  out promotions as much as two months before Christmas,  according to a study to be released on Wednesday.
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Holiday shopping got off to a flying  start in the United States this weekend.
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(InfoWorld) - The 2006 holiday shopping period got off to a strong start over the weekend, according to several e-commerce operators. The Friday after the Thanksgiving holiday is typically seen as the start of the holiday sales season in the U.S. and retail outlets across the nation see some of the largest crowds of the year on that day. In recent years, online retailers also report strong traffic on the day. While consumers may be opening their wallets to online retailers like never before, there's also evidence they are after bargains like never before. Two online price comparison sites, which point consumers to the lowest prices for various items, reported surging traffic. Pricegrabber.com said it's seen a 45 percent increase year-over-year in referrals to merchants for November to date. In some categories, including toys, sporting goods and apparel, the amount of traffic sent to retailers by Pricegrabber has more than doubled, it said. Rival site Shopping.com reported a 40 percent jump in November-to-date referrals to online retailers and said hot categories include kids and family, home and garden, and clothing and accessories. Despite the strong traffic, Monday is likely to be busier, said Shopping.com. Last year visitors to the site peaked between noon and 2 p.m. on Monday. Two of the season's hottest holiday gift items, the recently-launched PlayStation 3 and Wii games consoles, have been selling fast on Ebay. In the week to Nov. 24, 14,675 PlayStation 3 and 26,708 Wii consoles were sold through the site. The average price of the PS3 was US$1,186.39 while the Wii fetched an average $412.53, according to eBay Marketplace Research. Both prices are well above their suggested retail prices. Other hot electronics items include the Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. BDP-1000 Blu-ray Disc player and Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod nano and iPod Shuffle, the company said.
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Spending by Americans shopping online  during this year's holiday season rose 24 percent to $8.8  billion, with sharp gains in purchases of clothing and  entertainment, Web company VeriSign Inc. said on Thursday.
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U.S. retail sales jumped a more-than-expected 1.2 percent in December, the government said on Thursday, as car dealers, furniture stores and on-line retailers reported strong sales.
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Online retail sites struggle to keep up with consumer demand during the first week of the holiday shopping season, according to Internet performance management vendor Keynote Systems Inc.
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Online auction house eBay goes the traditional route for the holidays.
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The Internet holiday shopping  season got off to a hotter start this year, with "Cyber Monday"  the top day ever for online sales and the long Thanksgiving  weekend a busy time for browsing ahead of buying, both online  and in stores, researchers said on Wednesday.
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Online spending for the holiday season remains robust, but free shipping upgrades and other offers are expected to extend the season later this year than last year, according to the latest report from comScore Networks Inc., an Internet research company.