Photo of Tom McGee

NEW YORK CITY—Shoppers set out a plentiful table for both brick-and-mortar and online retailers over the Thanksgiving holidays, the traditional starting point for the end-of-year shopping season. The International Council of Shopping Centers reported that 105 million adults visited malls and shopping centers on Black Friday, and 75% of all shopping was captured by retailers with a physical presence—whether the shopping took place in-store or on the Web.

“Thanksgiving Weekend is a great indicator for what will be a holiday season full of spending, as we are seeing a very positive consumer sentiment and willingness to spend,” says Tom McGee, president and CEO of ICSC. “Shopping centers across the country should feel very optimistic about the season ahead. While the shopping season is longer this year, it's not coming at the expense of the most popular shopping day of the year.”

Yet while the National Retail Federation has projected a year-over-year increase of 3.6% to 4% in holiday shopping overall, the big gainer on a percentage basis was e-commerce. Adobe Data said late Monday night that Cyber Monday sales volume was expected to reach $6.59 billion, a new high water mark for online shopping and a 16.8% Y-O-Y increase. Adobe predicts this will be the first-ever holiday season to break $100 billion in online sales.

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Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny is managing editor of Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. He has been reporting on business since 1988 and on commercial real estate since 2007. He is based at ALM Real Estate Media Group's offices in New York City.