NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Last-minute shoppers and post-Christmas bargain hunters fired up holiday sales over the Christmas holiday week, a report said Tuesday.
Sales for the week ended Dec. 27 jumped 24.6 percent over the same period a year ago, ShopperTrak said in its weekly National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE) report.
"Overall, the American consumer has not let retailers down so far this season," Michael Niemira, lead consultant for ShopperTrak, wrote in the report. "With December shaping up to finish 6 percent stronger than last year, and November already up nearly 5 percent, we can say that this should be the strongest holiday retail season since 1999," he said.
ShopperTrak also reported that sales for the week ended Dec. 27 fell 3 percent from the prior week due to the uneven comparison of a seven-day shopping week during the week ended Dec. 20, versus a holiday-shortened six-day Christmas week.
Chain store sales rise
U.S. chain store sales rose 2 percent in the run-up to Christmas in the week ended Dec. 27, up from a 0.6 percent gain the week before, the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and UBS said in its joint report Tuesday.
Compared with the previous year, sales for the week rose 5.5 percent, only slightly down from the previous week's 5.7 percent.
ICSC now expects sales for all of December to grow between 4 percent and 4.5 percent.
The ICSC-UBS report is compiled from a group of major discount, department and chain stores across the country that report their weekly results.
Separately, Instinet Research said in its Redbook report that weekly chain store sales picked up markedly last week as shoppers went bargain-hunting, though it might not be enough to rescue the month as a whole for retailers.
The pace of sales at major retailers grew by 3.9 percent on a year-over-year basis for the week ended Dec. 27, accelerating from a 2.9 percent pace the preceding week, the report said.
Still, sales so far in December were down 1 percent when compared to November.
The report said shoppers concentrated on gift and holiday categories, including toys, electronics, jewelry, gift cards and food.
The Redbook data are compiled from a sample of same-store sales at general merchandise retailers representing about 9,000 stores.
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