Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. retailers may see record holiday Internet purchases after slashing prices on high- definition televisions and leather jackets to attract customers over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Promotions by Walmart.com and Circuit City Stores Inc. may push online spending above $700 million today, a single-day best, Reston, Virginia-based ComScore Inc. estimated.

More than two-thirds of online retailers surveyed by the National Retail Federation offered online discounts or free shipping to entice consumers, who are spending less while grappling with higher food and fuel costs. Barnes & Noble Inc. was selling books for as much as 40 percent off, while Circuit City sold digital cameras for 30 percent less.

``The consumer has been educated for the last five years that the retailer gets nervous,'' said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group Inc. ``They begin to put products on sale, and the consumer responds very quickly to that.''

ShopperTrak RCT Corp. reported yesterday an 8.3 percent gain in sales the day after Thanksgiving, a bigger increase than it expected. The NRF said 147 million customers visited stores, up 4.8 percent from a year earlier, while shoppers spent 3.5 percent less per person.

Both groups left their holiday forecasts unchanged, with the NRF predicting the slowest increase in five years.

The weekend sales gains probably were skewed toward deals on flat-panel TVs and electronic picture frames as well as purchases of low-margin cashmere sweaters, said Todd Slater, an analyst at Lazard Capital Markets LLC.

`Typical Weekend'

``Our view is that sales largely missed plan,'' Slater wrote in a research note today. ``At Costco on a Saturday, traffic looked lower than normal on a typical weekend.''

Wal-Mart fell 70 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $45.03 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Target Corp. declined $1.95, or 3.4 percent, to $55.22, and Kohl's Corp. fell $1.23 to $47.49. J.C. Penney Co. dropped 38 cents to $40.92.

Consumer purchases over the Internet rose 29 percent on Thanksgiving Day and 22 percent the day after, known as Black Friday, ComScore said. Spending on so-called Cyber Monday, promoted by the NRF beginning in 2005 as the first online shopping day after the weekend, probably will exceed either of those days as people return to work, it said.

Online visits on Black Friday, called that because it was considered the day that retailers traditionally turned a profit for the year, increased 10 percent from a year earlier, according to data by research firm Nielsen Online.

Walmart.com

Walmart.com chief Raul Vazquez said today that sales on Black Friday climbed more than 60 percent compared with a year earlier.

``We feel even more bullish coming out of Thanksgiving and Black Friday because of the strong days we had,'' Vasquez said in an interview.

Walmart.com was selling Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 with games and accessories today for $399, less than the $479.66 it would normally cost.

Most Internet retailers don't collect sales taxes when consumers purchase goods online, an added savings. A purchase of a book at a store in Massachusetts would add another 5 percent fee.

Online Spending

Last year, the first Monday after Thanksgiving was the 12th-heaviest online spending day, according to data from ComScore. The busiest day last year was Dec. 13, when shoppers spent $667 million.

Web sites run by IAC/InterActiveCorp, owner of the HSN shopping channel and ticket seller Ticketmaster, were the most visited by U.S. shoppers from their homes, followed by Amazon.com Inc., Walmart.com and Target, New York-based Nielsen said.

Consumer electronics, computers and software generated the biggest increase in interest from a week earlier, Nielsen said. Among 11 categories tracked by Nielsen, books, music and video had the smallest jump.

Among the top 10 most-visited retail Web sites, Best Buy Co. and Circuit City experienced triple the volume from a year earlier, Nielsen said.

Internet retail spending in the next two months may increase 20 percent, slower than the 26 percent gain a year earlier, ComScore estimates.

November, December

Sales in November and December represent 20 percent of retailers' annual revenue, according to the NRF. The fourth quarter accounts for almost a third of retailers' annual profit, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Shoppers spent an average of $347.44, 3.5 percent less than a year earlier, on purchases from Nov. 22 through yesterday, the Washington-based NRF said, citing a poll by BIGresearch.

Combined sales for the two days after Thanksgiving increased 7.2 percent to $16.4 billion from a year earlier, the firm said yesterday. ShopperTrak co-founder Bill Martin described the results on both days as ``impressive.''

``We saw a broad-based rise in all regions,'' Martin said in an interview. ``Shoppers really came out in droves.''

Macy's Discounts

Macy's Inc., which lowered its fourth-quarter sales forecast on Nov. 14, offered discounts of as much as 60 percent on merchandise to attract customers on Black Friday.

``This is really important for us to have an outstanding next several weeks,'' Chief Executive Officer Terry Lundgren said in an interview Nov. 23.

ShopperTrak, which maintained its forecast of a 3.6 percent gain in holiday sales, measures foot traffic in shopping centers and malls using more than 50,000 video devices and past U.S. Commerce Department data. The firm has been releasing sales information since 2003.

BIGresearch, based in Worthington, Ohio, polled 2,395 consumers Nov. 22-24. The NRF has had a poll since 2004. The margin of error of the BIGresearch survey was plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.

The NRF in September predicted a 4 percent gain in total retail sales for November and December, the smallest gain since a 1.3 percent rise in 2002.

To contact the reporters on this story: Joseph Galante in New York at jgalante3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 26, 2007 17:18 EST