• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, December 2, 2009

The final sales tally for Black Friday weekend may not be what retailers hoped for, but parts of it set new records. Overall, ShopperTrak is reporting that weekend retail sales increased 1.6%, while shopper traffic actually declined 1.1% in the three-day period.

Spending on Black Friday itself rose just 0.5%, but it did hit $10.66 billion -- a new record. On Black Saturday, spending gained 0.9% from last year, to reach $6.11 billion. And while the 5.3% jump in Sunday sales to $3.73 billion might seem exciting, the Chicago-based traffic management company points out that last year the Sunday of Black Friday weekend began the long, slow slide into the Grinchiest holiday season in recent memory.

"The bottom line is, retailers saw a slight sales increase with a minimal traffic decrease, both of which are tremendous improvements over sales and traffic levels we saw throughout 2009 prior to the holidays," the company says in its report. "But while this weekend is a bit encouraging, we're still comparing to what turned out to be the worst holiday season we've ever measured."

New data from MasterCard SpendingPulse show that electronics and jewelry were among the bigger sellers, with apparel and luxury declining compared to last year. Electronic sales for the month of November were up 6.6% compared to last year, boosted by video game releases and a Black Friday jump of 8%. Jewelry gained 4.6% in the month.

And even though sales of other luxury goods have actually been strengthening for much of the fall, they declined again in November, sinking 7.3% from last year. Sales of specialty apparel dropped 5.7%.

A much happier sound, of course, is the steady cha-ching coming from online retailers. ComScore reports that in November, shoppers have spent $12.26 billion online -- a 3% gain from last year -- and that spending on Cyber Monday hit $887 million, up 5%. That total, it says, matches the heaviest online spending day on record -- Dec. 9, 2008.