BELLEVILLE, Ill. – Christmas Day has come and gone, but the shopping season will continue.

Consumers will shop for bargains, a better fit or a better gift in the following days. Last year, the International Council of Shopping Centers concluded that more than 15 percent of holiday shopping was done during the last week of December.

“That’s when you first see redemption of gift cards, returns, exchanges and you also see some additional clearance items on seasonal-based items,” said council spokesman Patrice Duker. “There are bigger mark-downs then.”

Gift cards also keep cashiers ringing after Christmas. Last year, U.S. shoppers spent more than $18 billion on them, which grow more popular with each year.

“It’s a pretty big week, and the gift cards drive that, especially with electronics and small appliances,” said Samantha Poole, manager at Target in Edwardsville, Ill. “I know we’re looking for gift card redemption. That’s always huge.

Anthony Zerban, manager of Circuit City in Fairview Heights, Ill., said his store plans to do like other retailers and attempt to lure customers back for another week of shopping.

“There will be sales,” Zerban said. “I can’t comment on them, but they will be in the papers next week.”

With holiday retail sales forecast to jump by $24.6 billion, ComScore Networks retail analyst Michael Rubin said sales for the period will be 25 percent higher than a year ago, and online sales will break the $100 billion barrier for first time.

In anticipating such healthy numbers, there may be that many more gift returns or exchanges. So don’t clip the tags right away.

“We’re ready for returns to come, but we don’t have any expected number,” Poole said. “It’s also a big merchandise day, and people forget that. We do a ton of business the day after.”

Some chains, such as Best Buy and Circuit City, charge stocking fees for “opened” returns. Zerban said Circuit City charges a 15 percent fee of the total cost to restock any item that is open and not exchanged.

“It’s for things like digital cameras … laptop computers, desktop computers,” he said. “A lot of things that may be used for one time that we are basically able to recover for whatever we sold that item for when we sell it as an open-box item.”