Santa Stuck in Retailers' Chimney?

But the sales surge may be too little too late for many retailers.

That overall sales softness appears to be showing up in retailers' weekly sales reports for December. Retail behemoth Wal-Mart, for instance, reported on Monday that while sales of its seasonal items picked up last week, its same-store sales growth continues to be at the low end of its projected 3% to 5% rate.

Meanwhile, Federated Department Stores, which operates the Macy's and Bloomingdale's chains, said it was difficult to determine how well it will do in December, but that it continues to expect to post a same-store sales decline of somewhere around 2.5%.

Retail analysts have blamed the slow sales on the continued economic malaise as well as concerns about a possible war on Iraq, which is depressing business investment and jobs growth. Niemira fingered two other possible culprits: online sales that are taking a greater share of consumers' holiday spending, and lower costs of products, which retailers are passing on to consumers in the form of promotions and discounts.

"There's lots of different factors, some industry-oriented, some macro. They're all coming together to give the impression of a more sluggish season this year," Niemira said.

As Niemira indicated, however, online retail sales have been anything but sluggish this holiday season. Excluding online auction and travel sales, e-commerce sales between Nov. 1 and last Friday topped $7.1 billion, up 23% from the same period last year, according to ComScore Networks. For the fourth quarter as a whole, online sales are up 24%, according to ComScore.

And even some traditional retailers appear to be doing well. J.C. Penney (JCP - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), for instance, said Monday that its same-store sales for last week were on target for its projected low-single-digit increase. For the month as a whole, J.C. Penney said its sales were ahead of its expectations.