• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, December 24, 2014

With consumers continuing to shake up the way they view the seasonal retail calendar, Macy’s is trying something new: Celebrating the days after Christmas in what it calls “The Week of Wonderful.”

While Boxing Day sales have been around forever, this seven-day event differs in that it is offering new merchandise, in hopes that it can better capture gift card redemption and gift exchanges.

And retailers are still sorting out how they fared through the holiday period, but there are some indications that the season has been strong. ComScore, which tracks e-commerce spending from desktop computers, says its latest tally continues to show a 15% gain, measuring the first 51 days of the November/December period, to $48.3 billion. And the week between Dec. 15 and Dec. 21 was even stronger -- up 18% to $5.8 billion -- including more than $1 billion on both the 15th and 16th, and $926 million on the 18th, which was Free Shipping Day.

And as expected, spending on Super Saturday surpassed Black Friday for the first time, according to ShopperTrak, although it did not quite hit the $10 billion in sales the company had predicted. “Though a close race, a 0.5% increase in Super Saturday sales as compared to 2013 won it the number one spot for sales this holiday season,” it says in its analysis. It noted gains in both transaction size and conversion rates.

It attributed the gains to lower unemployment rates, cheaper gas and better weather, as well as consumers becoming more focused in the way they shop: “The increases that were reported on Super Saturday indicate that well informed shoppers are arriving at the mall armed with product knowledge and purpose.”