US Thanksgiving weekend shopping moved online, retail group finds

The information highlights the melting away significance of Black Friday, which until a couple of years back commenced the Christmas shopping season, as more retailers begin marking down prior in the month and open their entryways on Thanksgiving Day.

Consumer spending at brick-and-mortar retail locations in the USA fell 10 percent to $20.4 billion over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, according to ShopperTrak.

Online shopping has become an easier alternative than hitting the stores, since deals can be used through an iPad, smartphone or other tools that connect to the internet.

“Friday was busier and Saturday didn’t disappoint”, he said.

“What we’re seeing is some softness in the two days, which could be accounted for by early promotions”, ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin said.

Anecdotally, it appears the Black Friday bonanza is tempering as retailers react to consumers’ changing shopping habits.

All those trends combine to sap a good deal of Black Friday’s sizzle. Overall, more than 151 million people shopped either in stores or online. “It comes right to your door”.

The NRF president said in a statement, “It is clear that the age-old holiday tradition of heading out to stores with family and friends is now equally matched in the new tradition of looking online”.

In the time period from midnight through 11 a.m. on Thursday, consumers had already unloaded half a billion dollars online on Black Friday sale items.

Shoppers are even starting to postpone some of their back-to-school purchases until later in the fall, in anticipation of such deals, Christopher said. “It’s been steady but no overwhelming”. Overall holiday spending has grown every year since 2009.

A 4.1 percent decline is far from minor, and renders indefensible the breezy confidence credited to “most analysts” in Rugaber’s fifth paragraph that “this year’s holiday sales…”

“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.

Products sold online saw an average discount of 24 percent. Electronic commerce increased by 14.3 percent – bringing in .72 billion – on Friday compared to last year’s figures, the Associated Press reports. The company said it saw a 35 percent increase in buy-online/pickup in-store this year.

That data confirms that brands don’t need to have employees show up to stores to generate holiday sales on Thanksgiving Day – they can simply offer discounts online. IHS considers the holiday shopping season to include both November and December. It stuck by its forecast of a 2.4 percent increase for November and December sales.

The National Federation of Retailers estimates that average spending over the whole of the Thanksgiving weekend totaled $299.60.