Holiday Sales Off to Solid Start for Florida Retailers

With the holiday shopping season now into its second week, retailers in Florida say sales are off to a strong start.

On Friday, the Florida Retail Federation (FRF) said retailers were on track to meet their projections which show an increase between 3.5-to-4.5 percent over last years numbers.

A majority of the reports coming in a week after Black Friday are positive, and we expect a steady buildup to the big weekend before Christmas, said Rick McAllister, the president and CEO of the FRF. The big winner this week was e-commerce, which continues to expand as a share of retail sales. This clearly increases the urgency for the Florida Legislature and Congress to modernize our tax code and establish a level playing field for sales tax collection.