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…
