Trendline on Black Friday/Holidays

Black Friday marks the start of the shopping season, as retailers and analysts watch to see how trends and early indicators play out in the weeks between the sales kick-off and the holidays themselves. 
The complete reckoning for the shopping period each year isn’t known until there is a full tally of in-store sales figures. Last year, holiday retail sales grew 5.1% to more than $850 billion, the strongest in six years, fueled especially by apparel and home improvement sales, according to a Mastercard SpendingPulse report emailed to Retail Dive.  Read more…