Reports have started trickling in reporting better Black Friday sales numbers this year as compared to the same period last year. Accroding to comScore Black Friday Online sales grew by 22% to $531 Million.

comScore, Inc. , a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an update of holiday season e-commerce spending covering the first 23 days (November 1 - 23) of the November - December 2007 holiday season. More than $9.3 billion has been spent online during the season-to-date, marking a 17- percent gain versus the corresponding days last year. Online retail spending was strong on both Thanksgiving Day (up 29 percent to $272 million) and "Black Friday" (up 22 percent to $531 million), outpacing the season-to-date growth rate.

    2007 Holiday Season To Date vs. Corresponding Days* in 2006
    Non-Travel (Retail) Spending
    Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases
    Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
    Source: comScore, Inc.
                                                    Billions ($)
    Holiday Season to Date              2006           2007      Pct Change
    November 1 - 23                    $7.98           $9.36       17%
    Thanksgiving Day                   $0.21           $0.27       29%
    "Black Friday" (November 23)       $0.43           $0.53       22%

    * Corresponding Shopping Days, Not Calendar Days

According to another report based on a survey conducted by NRF,

Retailers attracted 147 million shoppers over the three-day holiday weekend, up 4.8% from last year, according to a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation. Black Friday's results were especially impressive. About 14.3% of all Americans were out shopping before 4 a.m. on Black Friday, up from 12.4% in 2006, the federation estimates. And ShopperTrak RCT, which tracks the activity at more than 50 million retail outlets, estimates that Black Friday sales rose 8.3% from last year's level. "The Black Friday outpouring should have [retailers] breathing a sigh of relief," says Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak.

Now all eyes are on Cyber Monday.