Online Shoppers Outnumber Those In Stores Over Black Friday Weekend

A National Retail Federation (NRF) survey on Sunday has concluded that more people shopped online than in stores during the Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“This… increase in (online) spend… clearly shows that this date is likely to continue to be a permanent fixture in the online retail calendar in the United Kingdom, despite the lower-than-expected footfall in bricks and mortar stores”, said James Miller, senior retail consultant at Experian Marketing Services.

ShopperTrak still expects this year’s overall holiday season to net more for retailers than last year. Nationally, Black Friday sales fell 10 percent to $10.4 billion, down from $11.6 billion in 2014, according to the research firm ShopperTrak.

“I saw a lot of great deals for Black Friday but some of those deals went through the weekend even until Monday”, Wilson said. His company saw e-commerce sales jump 9% on Thanksgiving and 10% the following day.

The moves are significant because retail experts, investors and economists look to the group’s Thanksgiving weekend numbers to provide an indication of the mood of consumers heading into the holiday shopping season, a period of historically strong spending. Black Friday spending has evolved because of early sales, he added.

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

Online shopping stole the show on Black Friday, with high street stores seemingly deserted during the retail holiday.

While the number of folks shopping online is up, they also note that the “average value” of what consumers are buying is falling.

Retailers cut back on Thanksgiving hours, rolled out discounts earlier this year and ran more of their bargains online, putting less pressure on consumers to rush out for discounts after their turkey dinners or the next morning.

“I think Black Friday is here to stay”, she said.

The NRF estimated that roughly 103 million Americans shopped online over the Thanksgiving weekend while almost 102 million shopped at brick-and-mortar establishments. We will bring you the latest on Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals between now and the end of November.

Shay said on a conference call Sunday that the industry should still be able to hit that sales growth target.

Adobe reported digital sales netted $2.7 billion on Friday, a 14.3% increase from previous year.