Will Smith, founder & CEO of Euclid Analytics, weighs in on the company's U.S. retail benchmarks report for October 2013 and how the government shutdown impacted shoppers and consumer spending during the month. In addition, Smith analyzes what the findings mean heading into the holiday shopping season.

With so many retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), Macy's, Inc. (NYSE: M), Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT), Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) and more kicking off promotions earlier this year and opening their doors on Thanksgiving Day, Smith discusses if Black Friday has now turned into Black Thursday.

Euclid uses technology and data to help retailers answer key questions about their business.