• Bloomberg, Marketing Daily, USA Today, Ad Age, Tuesday, December 28, 2010 10:30 AM

Even as Marketing Daily's Thom Forbes was exhorting readers yesterday to put off returning Christmas gifts until they had read about salient alternatives, consumers were putting off returning gifts because, well, they couldn't. A blizzard had come between them and the mall.

The immediate hit could be "brutal" for retailers, Marshal Cohen, industry analyst at research firm NPD Group, tells USA Today. The past shopping weekend was already cut in half with Christmas falling on a Saturday. Retailers lost some momentum coming off a healthy preholiday sales period, he says. "It's like getting the wind knocked out of you."

He tells Ad Age that it could take up to two weeks to make up for the lack of traffic on Sunday and Monday. "That's how many people shop on the 26th of December," Cohen says, the bulk of which is returns and gift card purchases.

Still, retailers are dancing with happy feet. Bloomberg reports that 2010 holiday sales were up 5.5%, the best performance in five years; last year they were up 4.1%.

Read the whole story at Bloomberg, Marketing Daily, USA Today, Ad Age »