[…] Data from the first few days of the “official” holiday shopping season indicate that shoppers are returning in force to the aisles and online. As noted last week, during the five days from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, 196.7 million Americans shopped in stores and online, per data from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics. That’s 9% higher than last year and the highest reading since the beginning of the report five years ago. […]