For retailers looking for positive signs of a turnaround, a survey released Nov. 5 found that 16 percent of those asked expect to begin their holiday shopping the day after Thanksgiving. That figure is up from 10 percent last year and in 2007.

The Holiday Spending Survey was conducted of 1,000 consumers for the the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs by Opinion Research Corp.

The survey also found that shoppers plan to spend an average of $543 on gifts this year and $133 on gift cards, which the survey says is continuing the trend toward actual gifts and away from gift cards.

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The day after Thanksgiving — called Black Friday because it’s the day retailers are supposed to begin showing a profit on the year — is typically one of the busiest shopping days of the year, oftentimes prompted by loss-leader sale prices.

The expected increase in shoppers this year “is not totally surprising,” said Michelle Tan, Goldman, Sachs & Co.’s global investment research analyst, in a news release. “Traffic has been increasingly concentrated in key shopping periods with deeper lulls in between and these survey results suggest that this trend will continue during the 2009 holiday season.”