The holiday shopping season extended into January due to gift-card redemptions and clearance sales, the National Retail Federation (NRF) reported. According to the NRF, retail-industry sales for January-which exclude automobiles, gas stations and restaurants-increased 7.6% over last year and rose 2% seasonally adjusted over December.

“The spectacular growth we saw in January was an unexpected surprise for the industry,” said NRF Chief Economist Rosalind Wells. “While our 2006 outlook for the retail industry remains cautious, consumers responded well to the popularity of gift cards, mild winter weather and aggressive clearance sales. We expect to see a continuation of the heavily promotional environment.”

According to the NRF, January retail sales released by the U.S. Commerce Department show that total retail sales-which include non-general merchandise categories such as autos, gas stations and restaurants-rose 2.3% seasonally adjusted from December and increased 8.9% unadjusted year-over-year.

Strong growth was shown in the building-material and garden-equipment and supply-dealers categories, as sales increased 17.6% year-over-year. With furniture and home furnishing stores up 9.5% from January 2005, home improvement and investment was shown to be a major focus in January, the NRF said.

Additionally, strong year-over-year gains were seen at clothing and clothing-accessories stores (9.7%), health- and personal-care stores (8.1%), and sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores (6.5%), the NRF said.

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