Although sales on the Friday after Thanksgiving, traditionally one of the two busiest shopping days of the year, declined from last year, the National Retail Federation estimated that total American retail sales for the entire weekend jumped 22% over last year, to $27.8 billion.

More than 60 million shoppers hit the stores and the Internet on Friday, a 7.9% gain over last year, according to a study released yesterday by the National Retail Federation, the world’s largest retail trade association. On Saturday, 52.8 million people shopped, a 13.3% increase.

The average shopper spent $302.81 this weekend, the study found.

“As expected, retailers offered substantial discounts and savings … to bring people into their stores, and consumers held up their end of the bargain by shopping,” the president and CEO of the retail federation, Tracy Mullin, said.

Visa USA announced that total sales on Visa branded cards exceeded $7 billion on Friday and Saturday, a 15% increase from last year, according to the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, ShopperTrak RTC Corporation, a private retail information company, found that Friday’s retail sales dropped 0.9% versus last year, to $8 billion, and concluded that the holiday season was off to a flat start.

Despite seeing a decline in retail sales, analysts at ShopperTrak were not overly alarmed about the prospects for retail sales this season.

“While Black Friday is important to retailers, it’s not always the best indicator for consumer shopping patterns during the remainder of the holiday season, which should allow the retail industry to continue feeling optimistic,” the chief economist and director of research for the International Council of Shopping Centers, Michael Niemira, said. Mr. Niemira is a consultant for ShopperTrak.

The Friday after Thanksgiving is often called Black Friday because the surge in shopping that day is said to push stores into profitability. A store that is profitable is said to be “in the black,” while a store that shows a net loss is “in the red,” as two colors are used to demarcate profit and loss on a company’s ledgers.

J&R Computer and Music World was much more packed this weekend than at the same time last year, according to a spokesman, Abraham Brown.

“For some reason, people are buying more expensive items – flat screen TVs, expensive cameras, … GPS systems,” he said, adding that he’d seen the trend develop in the past few weeks. “Prices have dropped, but they’re still expensive,” he added.

Mr. Brown attributed the strong shopper turnout to aggressive marketing and special offers.

A counter manager in the fragrance department at Macy’s, Pedro Dependa, said his department was more crowded Friday than Saturday, but that both saw more customers than last year.

Asked about her holiday shopping plans, a shopper at the department store Century 21 in Lower Manhattan, Malkit Pall, said she expected to spend about $1,000. Ms. Pall, a resident of Britain whose eight-week work trip to America will end December 9, said she was taking advantage of the weak dollar.

“I just spent $142,” she said, “and it works out to 83 pounds.”

Lena Corwa and Marian Daily said they were part of an eight-woman shopping expedition from Ireland. The group arrived on Thursday, and the members plan to spend $1,500 each before they leave early next week, Ms. Corwa said.

She and her friends shopped more on Saturday, she said, because stores were too crowded on Friday.

The president of NYC & Company, Crystine Nicholas, estimated that New York would see a record 8.2 million holiday tourists this November and December, and that they would spend about $4.5 billion. NYC & Company is the city’s official tourist marketing organization.

Though only 15% of the out-of-towners who visit New York come from abroad, they account for 45% of the total tourist spending, she said.

“It’s going to be a green Christmas,” she said of the city’s predicted profits.