Mobile shopping surged on Black Friday

They hit the road early, getting to the door-buster sales.

BLACK Friday was on its way to becoming the biggest online shopping day in United Kingdom history as consumers shunned the high street in search of bargains on the web.

Thank that little smartphone in your hand.

It’s not clear whether that move made more people shop online instead of heading to stores.

On Friday, there was evidence that shoppers were vacillating between stores and online.

But in recent years, retailers have started offering mega-discounts in stores and online earlier instead of waiting until Black Friday. He also was pleased with store traffic. Global information services group Experian has predicted online sales in Britain to exceed £1 billion (S$2.1 billion) for the first time.

“I was asking where all the people were”, she said.

“These two days, we could put a normal month’s worth in”.

Last year, Best Buy had to take it website offline several times on Black Friday due to a surge in traffic from mobile devices.

Steve Bratspies, chief merchandising officer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. “I’ll be able to put a few more gifts under the tree for my kids”. And of course, we sold out of the special-price TVs.

Many shoppers walked out with TVs – some with more than one.

“We think it should stay on Friday because then we’d have to call it Black Thursday, they can’t call it Black Friday if they’re open on Thursday”, said shopper Abby Dahl. And for some, deals advertised by stores weren’t actually bargains. Rob Wolfe is manager of the Sears in the Mall at Barnes Crossing and says Thanksgiving and the day after are huge.

“They come in and they want Doc McStuffins, they want Mickey Mouse, they want Toy Story, they want these things that their kids watch every day”, Turner said.

Torrance resident Viv Coorapati echoed similar sentiments.

“Right now, our parking lots are pretty much at capacity”, Woodall said at noon.

Many consumers “use mobile devices to shop but not necessarily to buy” because the “shopping experience is still not as easy as with a desktop computer”, Gaffney said. In the past few years, some retailers have opened on Thanksgiving Day. Because of that, some shoppers weren’t excited about discounts on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

Sales at retail stores the day after the Thanksgiving holiday fell 10 percent to $10.4 billion this year, down from $11.6 billion in 2014, according to research firm ShopperTrak.

One factor which may have contributed to a lackluster Black Friday, at least for brick-and-mortar stores in Greenville, was many sales began on Thanksgiving proper while even more started as early as Wednesday.

Shoppers a year ago bought 43 million items through Amazon.com on Cyber Monday, “which is a record-breaking 500 items per second”, company officials said.

On Tuesday, Dec. 1, ShopperTrak will release a full weekend recap, which will include additional details regarding sales and shopper visits.

Fortune said economists were predicting retailers “will come up short”. About 183 million people are expected to place orders online Cyber Monday.