Online shopping popular, but won’t save season

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

More Americans are deciding to shop online this holiday season instead of heading to crowded stores.

But that alone won’t save what is turning out to be a ho-hum Christmas for department stores and clothing chains.

Online sales have surged 9 percent so far this holiday season as Wal-Mart, Macy’s and other retailers improved their web sites and prices to better compete with their online nemesis Amazon.com. Meanwhile, shopping at physical stores is up just 2 percent.</blockquote>