• by Tanya Gazdik , December 2, 2010

Retail sales got a big lift in November across all segments, partly due to a strong promotional environment.

The sales-weighted composite for the 30 retailers reporting was better than the 1.7% same-store sales gain last month and the 0.9% gain in November of 2009 for the same measure, according to Kantar Retail.

And the International Council of Shopping Centers, which tracks a different group of stores, says its index registered a 5.8% comparable-store increase, outperforming both industry and ICSC expectations.

Both Kantar and ICSC attribute the gains to promotions. Other factors that resulted in a bump were easy comparisons (back-to-back November declines in 2008 and 2009), colder-than-normal weather, aggressive post-Thanksgiving marketing and a recovering economy.

Department stores led the results, although the gains were spread across channels with food, drug and mass retailers and apparel and accessory stores following closely behind.

Target's CEO observed that his company's November sales "were better than expected, driven by very strong guest traffic throughout the month." Target saw a 5.5% lift in same-store sales. JC Penney, which reported a 9.2% increase in same-store sales, described its holiday onset as "off to a strong start with the biggest Black Friday sales event in its history."

Shoppers have been shaking off their recent caution about spending and any last doubts may have been removed by all the great deals that came early and often in November, said Frank Badillo, Kantar senior economist. "The rest of the holiday looks positive given shoppers' spending plans, but they will no doubt be looking for more big promotions to sustain this kind of spending pace," he says in a release.

Nearly half (49%) of shoppers said they planned to spend about the same on holiday gifts as last year, according to Kantar. The percentage of shoppers who plan to spend less on holiday gifts slipped to 36%. The percentage of shoppers planning to spend more held steady at 9%.

For December, ICSC Research anticipates that year-over-year industry comp-store sales growth will be up by 3.0% to 3.5%.