Yesterday's coverage of RetailNext holiday shopping metrics in Women's Wear Daily touched on the main themes for shopping performance this holiday season.  In addition to what WWD reported, we made these observations:

Through December 23, traffic is down 16.5% YoY, and net sales are down 5.8%.  This difference is made up for by stronger conversion and ATV (up 1.1 basis points and 4% respectively) in 2012 over 2011.

It’s important to note, however, that due to differences in the calendar, last year December 24 was a mild shopping day as Christmas Eve goes.  We attribute that softness to the fact that Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday and people were spending time with their families.  This year with Christmas Eve falling on a Monday in the midst of what for most people became a four-day weekend, we expect it to have been a much larger shopping day, which should make the YoY overall numbers look better than they appear at the end of the 23rd.

This expectation is substantiated by strong performance in the final days leading up to Christmas.  December 22 was the month’s top day in both traffic and overall sales, with the 19th, 20th, and 21st showing up in the top five sales day as well.  In fact, Saturday, December 22 was a monster shopping day, beating even Black Friday itself in sales and falling just a hair behind in traffic.  Saturday, the 22nd showed sales up 60% versus the Saturday before Christmas in 2011 (Christmas Eve).

Top 5 traffic days (highest to lowest)

• Friday, November 23
• Saturday, December 22
• Saturday, December 15
• Sunday, December 23
• Friday, December 21

Top 5 sales days (highest to lowest)

• Saturday, December 22
• Friday, November 23
• Friday, December 21
• Saturday, December 15
• Thursday, December 20

Top 5 conversion days (highest to lowest)

• Tuesday, December 18
• Monday, December 17
• Friday, December 21
• Wednesday, December 19
• Friday, December 14

Top 5 ATV days (highest to lowest)

• Thursday, November 22
• Sunday, December 23
• Thursday, December 20
• Wednesday, December 19
• Tuesday, December 18