Holiday sales consistently represent nearly one-fifth of annual retail sales, even though the share has continued to shrink over the past 15 years, perhaps due to earlier shopping or to the increased use of gift cards, which are typically redeemed in January or later, according to the NRF.

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For January and February combined, retail sales (including autos) were up 10.7% at an annual rate, while retail sales (excluding autos) were up 14.8%.

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But retail annual like-for-like sales fell 3.2% with weakness in the electrical and computing sector.

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From 2004 to 2009, while online retail sales increased at an average annual rate of 16%, online apparel sales increased by 19% annually (data not available for 2010-2012).

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Also, retail sales growth has been holding at a 6.5% annual pace over the last four months.

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Trade publication The Licensing Letter today released its second annual list of the best-selling licensed entertainment character merchandise, based on 2011 retail sales in North America.

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To put this in perspective, that is what Apple was worth earlier in the year and numerous other items identified in this link including the annual prescription drug sales in the US, the US entire aircraft carrier fleet, retail sale of electricity in the US, or the entire coffee industry.

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We estimate that the number of transactions processed by MasterCard will get a push from rising retail sales and will approach 57 billion by the end of our forecast period, an annual growth rate of 14% off of a roughly 23 billion base in 2010.

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