NRF survey highlights Black Friday numbers, online shift

As many Americans bought online as they did in physical stores during the Thanksgiving weekend shopping splurge, the National Retail Federation said Sunday, highlighting a growing trend away from the traditional Black Friday consumer assault.

Beemer says much of the increase came from Walmart, offering deep discounts online starting Thanksgiving morning in and effort to compete with online retailer Amazon, which is offering deals all week.

The survey found 41 million people (39.8 percent ) said they shopped online on Thanksgiving Day and 75.3 million (73.1 percent) shopped online on Black Friday. The NRF changed its surveying methodology and said the report is not comparable to last year’s numbers. Decreased store hours on Thanksgiving and a later date for Hanukkah also contributed to the Black Friday retail decline.

A year ago Black friday and Thanksgiving deals were baffling, driving retailers to twofold down on rebates which prompted a very late shopping free for all. Chris Christopher, director of consumer economics at consulting firm IHS, predicts that holiday season e-commerce sales will jump 11.7 percent this year to about $95 billion, up from last year’s 10.9 percent gain.

The National Retail Federation reported that shoppers spent an average of $200.60 dollars over the weekend, with 76.6 percent of that spent on gifts.

People under the age of 35 were most likely to spend over the weekend.

“It’s still a decent execution for the weekend, given the development that is being seen online too”, ShopperTrak originator Bill Martin said. But even after the brick-and-mortar drop, ShopperTrak maintained its forecast that those sales will rise 2.4 percent this holiday season. Americans have spent a half billion dollars in online holiday shopping so far, $100 million more than past year.

Other factors, including an earlier roll out of holiday promotions, also are changing consumers’ behavior, NRF President Matthew Shay said in a statement. More than 103 million consumers shopped online compared with 102 million in-store shoppers.

Instead, the AP economics writer told readers about the dollar amount of this year’s and last year’s Thursday and Friday store sales, but failed to quantify the increase in online sales. “Ultimately, while many question the ongoing relevance of Black Friday, it is still the biggest sales day of the year and signals the start of the holiday shopping season”.

Many Black Friday deals at retailers like Zara (which gave customers a 30-percent discount), Madewell (which offered a 25-percent discount) and Victoria’s Secret (which had a buy one bra, get one 50-percent off promotion) were available both in stores and online.