November was a strong month for retail as a whole, but even more specifically for the Independent retail segment.

The National Retail Federation and CNBC November Retail Monitor report, powered by Affinity Solutions, showed that November retail sales experienced moderate growth, even though two of the biggest retail days of the year fell during December and weren’t included in the month’s totals.

Total retail sales, excluding auto and gas, were up 0.15 percent seasonally adjusted month-over-month and up 2.35 percent unadjusted year-over-year, the report showed. Core retail sales, which exclude restaurants in addition to auto and gas, were down 0.19 percent month-over-month but up 1.43 percent year-over-year.

“November sales increased on top of a strong October and would have been even higher if Thanksgiving Sunday and Cyber Monday hadn’t fallen in December,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement. “Year-over-year gains were solid even as retail prices in many categories are lower this year, showing that consumers are buying more merchandise as the economy continues to grow. We remain confident in our holiday forecast.”

Looking closer at the numbers, the results from the month were a little mixed, industry wide. While online and other non-store sales were up 21.48 percent year-over-year, sales were down on a year-over-year basis at furniture and home furnishing stores (1.15 percent) and electronics and appliance stores (7.28 percent).

By comparison, NMG dealers fared much better than the collective retail industry during the month of November. Looking back at the group’s Black Friday Promo Period report, released earlier this month and covering the November 6 through December 4, the home appliance channel was up in both total volume (20.8 percent) and total units sold (19 percent) compared to last year. Similarly, data from NMG’s proprietary PriMetrix platform shows that sales in November in the furniture category were up in both volume (10 percent) and units sold (14 percent) versus last year. The mattress category saw a 2 percent year-over-year increase in volume in November while total units sold were down 11 percent.

The strong performance in November sets the category up for a much needed boost in confidence (and dollars) to close out what’s been an otherwise challenging year.