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Retail roundup: Christmas edition

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-- The average American spends about 42 hours buying, wrapping and returning gifts, partying and traveling to visit family and friends, according to a Consumer Reports survey. Fifteen hours of that time is spent shopping for gifts, with women spending twice as long as men -- 20 hours versus 10 hours. Once they get home, Americans plan to spend about three hours wrapping gifts and about 15 hours attending holiday parties, gatherings or events with friends or family.

-- Retail sales over Super Saturday weekend (Dec. 17-19) rose 5.5% over the same weekend last year, according to ShopperTrak. Foot traffic was up 3%. Although those numbers were robust, ShopperTrak said retailers may have seen even bigger sales in the last few days as procrastinators rushed to the stores for last-minute gifts.

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-- Online sales during the holiday season through Christmas Eve rose 15.4% year-over-year to $36.4 billion, according to MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse report. Six days during the season saw more than $1 billion in sales each, said SpendingPulse, which estimated total U.S. online retail sales across 72,000 online retailers from Oct. 31 through Dec. 24. Apparel sales led the way; other strong categories included online electronics.

-- Check back Monday for SpendingPulse’s report on how the holiday season performed for brick-and-mortar stores.

-- Andrea Chang

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