Amazon reports record sales on Black Friday

Shoppers are expected to spend nearly £1 billion online as retailers unleash another set of bargain deals on Cyber Monday.

USA shoppers no longer blow the bulk of their holiday budgets on the day after Thanksgiving known as Black Friday.

Retail giant Amazon reported record figures on Friday, with more than 7.4million items ordered, leading to its biggest sales day ever in the UK. Almost 102 million people said they shopped in stores over the weekend, while more than 103 million people shopped online. That is down from about $381 over the same weekend a year ago, although the NRF said those numbers are not comparable because it changed the survey’s methodology.

NRF Chief Executive Officer Matt Shay said that he was encouraged by signs of improving consumer sentiment, helped by low unemployment and cheap gas. But 34 percent said they shopped on Thanksgiving Day and 46 percent said they shopped on Saturday.

“It’s nearly the second quarter going on halftime, whereas once upon a time, this was really where the game started”, Shay said on a Sunday conference call with reporters.

Total sales on Black Friday fell 10 percent to $10.4 billion this year, down from $11.6 billion in 2014, according to research firm ShopperTrak. RetailNext, a company that provides in-store analytics software to retailers, said in-store traffic was flat over the weekend and that sales were down 1.5 percent at brick-and-mortar outposts. He projected total weekend sales would be up 2 percent from past year, as rising online sales balanced out slowing in-store demand.

Other data from this weekend suggest that shoppers are increasingly looking online to score deals.

She said: “Instead of waiting until January, shoppers are increasingly buying their festive bargains before Christmas”.

The survey also noted that an nearly equal number of people shopped in stores as well as online during the Thanksgiving weekend.