Similarly, we now expect that about 14% of international retail spending on electronics and general merchandise will occur online by the end of our forecast period, which is up from 8% estimated earlier.

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We now expect that nearly 26% of retail spending on electronics and general merchandise in the U.S. will occur online by the end of our forecast period, which is up from 16% estimated earlier.

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It operates a chain of approximately 7, 400 general merchandise retail discount stores in 45 states.

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Meanwhile, January retail sales data, released by the U.S. Department of Commerce, showed total retail sales (which include non-general merchandise categories such as autos, gasoline stations and restaurants) increased 5.6 percent unadjusted year-over-year and 0.4 percent seasonally adjusted month-to-month.

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