Black Friday sales expected to surge this year

U.S. consumers spent a record US$3.3 billion (S$4.7 billion) online on Black Friday, scooping up everything from Lego sets to Apple iPads, according to Adobe Systems Inc.

Accenture consultancy firm Salmon predicts consumers will spend £5.5 billion from Thursday, Nov. 24 to Monday, Nov. 28 in the United Kingdom.

At a time when shoppers once were hunting for bargains, Gail Broker, of Crystal Lake, found herself taking a break from shopping at Spring Hill Mall Friday morning.

(Chris Heller/The Houma Daily Courier via AP).

Thanksgiving Day: Consumers spent $1.93 billion, 11.5 percent more than in 2015, with an average order value that was relatively flat at $160, compared to $162 in 2015.

(Justin Wan/Sioux City Journal via AP).

The Outlet Shoppes in Oklahoma City opened Thanksgiving night.

It has already warned shoppers to “do your research” to avoid falling foul to bogus promotions after a study revealed half of last year’s deals were cheaper in the months before and after Black Friday. It now offers 23 million products online, almost triple from last year’s holiday shopping season. Amazon launched a Black Friday Deals Store on November 8. Smartphones and tablets have made it easier for consumers to shop from the couch, and many more of them are now doing just that. That can mean more browsers turn into buyers, but also that they are visiting fewer stores in person. Singewald said she was merely the vehicle – “and sometimes the credit card” – as her daughters hunted for deals and worked on their shopping lists. She arrived early to shop with her 85-year-old mother-in-law, but the mall had not officially opened. Her must-have item a laptop for a daughter in college. He says residents can make a difference by shopping for garland and other seasonal decorations at farms, farmers’ markets, roadside stands and nurseries instead of big box stores.

“It’s better than coming in the store”.

“Divide and concur-you got to split up, someone goes one way someone goes the other way”. Retailers seeded their advertising with even more lucrative deep-discount “doorbusters” than a year ago, and offered more dramatic discounts, said Traci Gregorski, senior vice president of marketing at Market Track.

The firm’s preliminary holiday shopping forecast is for online sales to rise as much as 19 percent to $81 billion.

Now, while electronics would usually be a top seller on Cyber Monday, “the most-watched deal” for this holiday season is the Mermaid Tail Blanket. Stores like JCPenney and Kohl’s began promoting Black Friday sales prices online earlier this week.

Sally Pickens and her husband made a beeline from their home in Grafton, W.Va.to Cabela’s at The Highlands early Friday to participate in the annual post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy that is Black Friday.

US stores are now opening on Thanksgiving to try and boost in-store sales, while retailers have been offering online deals weeks in advance to cope with lower demand and stiff pricing competition.

Menards is one of only a handful of businesses who opted to start their Black Friday deals on Friday and stay closed on Thanksgiving.

With the competition for customers so intense, many stores were open Thursday evening in what they hope will be a new holiday tradition.

“It was a really good start. Really calm”, said shopper Lauren Green, who was in line outside a Zara clothing store in the Roosevelt Field Mall on Long Island east of NY at 5:20 am.

“I was here previous year and it did kind of ice and sleet”. Nationwide U.S. retail sales rose 0.8 percent in October, driven by a 1.5 percent jump in receipts at online retailers.

Macy’s has been offering exclusive deals for its app users. Some retailers will offer the discounts available in the stores Thursday all day online. “Retailers seem to be a lot more proactive about communicating out what they used to hold very close to the vest”, she said.

Mobile ordering has become Black Friday’s secret weapon.

Donnell Allen, a sales associate at JC Penny, attempts to hand out coupon packets while being rushed by a crowd of Black Friday shoppers shortly after the doors opened at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2016, at Midland Park Mall in Midland, Texas.