Holiday Shopping Season | featured news

Though December was weaker than expected, the overall holiday season was still relatively strong, analysts said.

A blizzard in the Northeast this weekend postponed about $1 billion in holiday retail sales by keeping shoppers out of stores in the days after Christmas, research firm ShopperTrak said on Wednesday.

Amazon.com Inc said sales of its Kindle e-reader were strong over the holiday season amid competition from devices such as Apple Inc's iPad, a computer tablet that also has e-reader capabilities.

Snowstorms have deterred shoppers at after Christmas sales in America's northeast, while retailers in the rest of the country are anticipating the highest sales in three years.

Holiday procrastinators are preparing to zoom through picked-over stores, grabbing discounted sweaters and can't-go-wrong gift cards. If they can get a parking spot, that is.

More last-minute shoppers flocked to stores this year on the final Saturday before Christmas than last year, but spending is expected to be even higher late this week.

Holiday online retail spending for the 47 days of the shopping season through December 17 totaled $27.46 billion, according to new data from ComScore, up 12% from the comparable period a year ago. Sales in the latest week were $5.15 billion, up 14% from the comparable week last year.

Shoppers ignored Best Buy Co Inc's promotion of pricey 3D televisions and other high-end gadgets this holiday season as they chased bargains elsewhere, hammering the company's profits.

Retail sales were solidly higher in November, the government reported Tuesday, fueled in part by deep discounting on holiday merchandise.

U.S. online retail sales through the first 40 days of the 2010 holiday shopping season are up 12% from a year ago, according to a Sunday update from ComScore.