ShopperTrak reports that sales at retail outlets increased 0.3% on Black Friday 2010 over Black Friday 2009.  Not exactly a sharp increase--the increase from 2008 to 2009 was 0.5%.  But when you take a look at other factors, there is a lot for retailers to like about holiday shopping so far:

ShopperTrak's data shows early holiday sales and door buster promotions impacted Friday's performance as the company saw some unexpected strength in early November - as sales and traffic for the first two weeks of the month through Nov. 13 increased 6.1 and 6.2 percent respectively versus the same two week period in 2009.  ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin says this early boost could impact retail performance beyond Black Friday and into the weeks leading into Super Saturday.

"Retailers were very conscious of driving traffic early in November and in doing so some might have thinned Black Friday spending a bit," Mr. Martin said.  "The reality is we have a deal driven consumer in 2010 and that consumer responded to some of the earliest deep discounts we've even seen for the holidays.  Additionally, a percentage of retailers concentrated on pushing folks to their Websites with various online only sales which most likely influenced Black Friday performance as well."  Martin continued:  "That being said, we still saw a record amount of money spent on Friday so it's hard to say Black Friday wasn't a success, it's just not the success we saw in the mid 2000's when the day really became a phenomenon with the American public.  And if retailers continue the pattern of early sales and online promotions, this could be the new norm in Black Friday performance."

While sales were essentially flat, ShopperTrak reports total U.S. foot traffic increased 2.2 percent on Black Friday which points to a shopper driven by various sales and promotions.

Read the full release here.

Meanwhile, online shopping seems to be doing exceptionally well this year.  EBay and PayPal report that sales doubled on Black Friday (see TechCrunch).  And Bloomberg is reporting that a big day today, Cyber Monday, could push online sales for Thanksgiving weekend over $1 billion for the first time.