CHICAGO - A research firm says shoppers spent only slightly more in stores this Black Friday than they did last year. Fresh signs of much stronger online sales during the traditional holiday shopping kickoff mean more might have shopped from home. Preliminary sales data show shoppers spent $10.66 billion when they hit the malls on the day after Thanksgiving. That's 0.5 percent more than last year. The figures were compiled by ShopperTrak RCT Corp., a Chicago research firm that tracks sales at more than 50,000 stores. J.C. Penney on Saturday said business was "strong" nationwide. And QVC, which markets products on television and online, said Black Friday sales totaled $32 million, up almost 60 percent from last year. Web marketing analyst Coremetrics says the average amount online shoppers spent on Black Friday rose 35 percent. Black Friday is seen as an important barometer of consumers' willingness to spend during the holidays.
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