“We are certainly encouraged that we are starting off from a period of strength,” Matthew Shay, the president of the National Retail Federation, said in a call with reporters. The retail federation said about 58 million consumers shopped online only, while 51 million shopped only in stores. Because the federation changed the way it analyzed holiday shopping data this year, the group was unable to say how shopping in stores compared with last year. Black Friday was second to Cyber Monday for online shoppers, with 66 million, according to the retail federation. The top shopping destination were department stores, according to the National Retail Federation, while the most popular gifts purchased included clothing and toys.

Source: New York Times November 28, 2017 19:52 UTC