engine - 4:37 pm on Dec 1, 2008 (gmt 0)

comScore: 'Black Friday' Ecommerce Online Sales Up [reuters.com]Just 1pct

U.S. retail sales online rose 1 percent on Black Friday, the traditional start to the holiday shopping season, to $534 million, tracking firm comScore said on Sunday.Combined with web sales on U.S. Thanksgiving the previous day, the figure rose 2 percent, but sales are down 4 percent to date in November from a year ago, comScore said. The firm has forecast total web holiday sales to be flat this year at $29.2 billion, compared with a 19 percent rise in 2007.