Mobile exclusives boosting Cyber Monday sales

The trade association expects total holiday sales to increase 3.7% in November and December from a year earlier. ShopperTrak comprised the figures partly based on data composed from its 1,200 members. That has been true for DVDs, high-definition TVs, Blu-ray technology and Apple’s iPad, he said. The weekend before Christmas is another big period for the industry.

More than 151 million people said they shopped either in stores and/or online over the weekend, according to a National Retail Federation (NRF) survey of more than 4,000 shoppers conducted on Friday and Saturday.

That was down slightly from the 126.9 million who planned to participate past year.

As more shopping shifts to the web, Wal-Mart Stores, Target and other traditional retailers are doing their best to ward off the e-commerce king: Amazon. Smartphones. The iPhone, in particular, accounted for 67 percent of all smartphone sales on Black Friday, according to Adobe via TechCrunch.

Black Friday shopping is shifting from hours spent in line to more time online.

Average spending per person over the weekend totaled $299.60 with an average of $229.56 specifically going towards gifts, or 76.6 percent of total purchases.

Additionally, as of November 28, 77.6 percent of those polled said they had at least started their holiday shopping.

With Black Friday now over, Cyber Monday is the next shopping day for many.

Shelton said one of the biggest consumer influencers this year are mobile exclusives. It notes that retailers spread offers this year to several days, not limiting them on Friday.

Online shopping stole the show on Black Friday, with high street stores seemingly deserted during the retail holiday.

Sales at brick and mortar stores took a hit during the Thanksgiving weekend as many shoppers chose to skip the mall and shop online instead.

Some of the decline could be attributed to shoppers researching online and going to stores when they’re ready to buy, Kearns said.

The social media feed also showed footage on www.jcpnewsroom.com of their website command center and what shoppers were purchasing most frequently. “With that in mind, we still maintain our 2.4% increase in sales for brick-and-mortar retail this holiday season”.

Consumers spent $4.45 billion online on Thanksgiving and Black Friday this year, and electronics and toys were tops in sales.

About a third of those purchases were made using a mobile device, Adobe said.