The early receipts are in, and the numbers are … well … confusing. We break down who’s up, who’s down, and what the rest of the shopping season likely has in store for sales across the board.

Sales rose 1.3% for the month of November, according to the Commerce Department’s retail-sales report. That increase is mostly due to a strong Thanksgiving weekend. Among the other bright spots, highlighted by the report:

• Auto sales were up 1.6% in November, after a tremendous 7% jump in October.
• Department-store sales rose .8%
• Electronics and appliance sales jumped 2.8%
• Online sales are up significantly, and
• Stock prices for several well-known retail chains, including Macy’s and Saks, rose during the first week of December.

Unfortunately, the news wasn’t all good. Economists contend a lot of consumers shopped heavily throughout Thanksgiving weekend because they needed to take advantage of deep discounts and one-time offers.

The week after Thanksgiving overall sales dipped 18%, according to ShopperTrak.

Deeper discounts still to come?

High unemployment, poor income growth and tight credit are still major contributing factors to the lack of consumer spending – a reality that has some experts predicting retail chains will offer discounts as high as 60-70% just to attract more business during the final week of the holiday season.

The overall consensus seems to be that the sales numbers for the 2009 holiday season will be slightly higher than they were a year ago. While that’s good news, it still seems to be a grind out there. Some companies that are really counting on this holiday season may come out of it feeling like the slight uptick is too little, too late.

How is your industry faring this year? Have things started moving in a positive direction again? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Source: “Economic reports raise hopes for global recovery,” by Martin Crutsinger and Anne D’Innocenzio, 12/11/09.

Tags: Macy's, Saks, ShopperTrak, Thanksgiving