Black Friday Online Sales Hit New High After Shoppers Snag Big Discounts

Online shoppers in the US made $1.2 billion of purchases via their phones and tablets on Black Friday, marking the first billion-dollar mobile shopping day in USA history, according to estimates from Adobe. “Shopping online that week will still save money, and many stores now offer free in-store pick-up”.

This year, retailers are both emphasizing online sales the entire week of Thanksgiving and starting Cyber Monday sales earlier than ever. That includes a 6% gain for desktop and laptop shopping and a whopping 59% jump for mobile shopping – which now accounts for 18% of all online shopping. Mobile purchases made up 41% of e-commerce orders on Thanksgiving, up from 37% past year, Rakuten found. “In the 40 years I’ve studied Black Friday, I’ve never seen the crowds this soft on Friday morning; parking wasn’t an issue, and lines were shorter than any weekend in October”, he wrote. “It’s our Black Friday tradition”.

In Virginia, Dana Sari says she prefers buying gifts from online catalogues and boutique retailers rather than larger corporations, which she says value her less as a customer. Last year, the steepest discounts were earned by early morning shoppers.

The world’s largest retailer has tripled its e-commerce selection to 23 million products this year, aiming to better compete with Amazon.com.

Cyber Monday, which falls on the Monday after Thanksgiving, is typically the busiest day of the year for online shopping.

Target Corp. plans to offer its Cyber Monday deals in its stores as well for the first time, and is launching them on Sunday. The aggressive discounts come at a cost. According to a new report out this evening from Adobe, which has been tracking e-commerce transactions throughout the sales holiday, Black Friday is on track to set a new record by surpassing the $3 billion mark for the first time. The retailer said that Target.com saw double-digit growth on Thanksgiving, driven by deals on electronics like televisions and Apple products.

Chris Sutton works at BestBuy and says his store is seeing about the same number of people as past year.

Thanksgiving eve is becoming a bigger shopping day too.

This year, almost six in 10 Americans – an estimated 137.4 million people – plan to or are considering shopping during Thanksgiving weekend, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey. Smartphones are still consumer’s favorite tool for getting to a mobile store. In those lines were people like Maria Ronin and her daughet Melissa who found great deals on clothing, fragrances, pajamas, and jewelry. Like many other people, she’s opting for some online shopping. She hoped to nab a 40-inch LG television for US$150 (S$214) – an nearly 50 per cent discount.

Jen Gorny, of Amherst, and Phyllis Coley, of Toledo, are two such traditionalists who said they wouldn’t miss the chance to shop on Thanksgiving or Black Friday.

Black Friday sales have been around for a long time and it looks like they’re here to stay. It has grown since its origin in 2005 to generate a whopping $3.19 billion in sales in 2015, up 21% from 2014, according to Adobe Systems estimates.

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump also stepped into the online sales excitement. We’ll be updating these pages as new deals come in, so keep checking back for more. “We’ve been up all night shopping”, he said.