Black Friday spending in US retail stores muted compared to online purchases

Black Friday spending in US retail stores was muted this year in contrast to a more robust rise online, as bargain-hungry Americans skipped stores in favor of their phones and laptops, according to data from Mastercard and other data providers. Sales at brick-and-mortar stores grew just 0.7% year-over-year, according to preliminary estimates by payments processor Mastercard, and were lower according to data firm Facteus. Yet US e-commerce sales increased by a hefty 14.6% online, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, a metric measuring US retail sales across the Mastercard payments network combined...