Online Black Friday Sales Very Strong, Driven By Mobile Technology

The National Retail Federation or NRF said Sunday that the number of people who shopped in stores or online over the Thanksgiving weekend has exceeded its previous survey. In-store sales on Thanksgiving day dropped from more than $2 billion to $1.8 billion.

ShopperTrak’s projections are based in part on traffic data from tens of thousands of devices installed at bricks-and-mortar locations across the United States.

But e-commerce has been steadily on the rise since 2006. For example, just 7.1% of internet users said they shopped in-store at thrift stores and resale shops during Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend. A strong turnout during Black Friday, Thanksgiving weekend and increased online sales boosted performance, according to the National Retail Federation. Smartphones generated 22 percent share of sales, up 70 percent from 2014. iPhones and iPads continued to drive the majority of mobile sales with 67 and 84 percent, respectively. It’s enough to have IHS director of consumer economics Chris Christopher predicting 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.

One more reason identified for the decline in-store sales is that many retailers offered online deals prior to Thanksgiving which limited Black Friday sales. When asked for their predictions for December, 37 per cent of consumers said they think the deals/promotions in December will be better than what was found over the past weekend while 51 per cent anticipate similar deals/promotions.

The November-December holiday season is crucial for many retailers because the two months can account for anywhere from 20 to 40 percent of their annual sales.

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

In terms of shoppers’ age, the biggest shopping contingent were the 25 to 34-year-old crowd, which represented 62.1 percent of the shopping mass.

“There’s some retailers that are sort of walking along the edge here this holiday season”.

Specifically, Thanksgiving Day, a notably controversial day for retail, grossed an estimated $1.8 billion in sales, while Black Friday garnered an estimated $10.4 billion in sales, it says. “Unlike ten years ago, we live in a world in which you can shop anywhere at any time”, said NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay in a press release.

“I am really starting to like it”, Wilson said.

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