US online sales jump as Black Friday kicks off holiday shopping season

By noon, online Black Friday sales tracked by Adobe had surpassed $1 billion, leaving open the possibilities of 11 percent year-over-year sales growth and online revenue topping $3 billion for the first time.

Black Friday just doesn’t offer as many unique good deals, says Guskey. The world’s largest retailer said in a statement Friday that Thanksgiving was one of its top online-shopping days this year and that about 70 percent of the traffic to its website came from mobile devices. But brick-and-mortar retailers offer instant gratification, making it worth her while to turn out at 1 a.m. along with hundreds of other shoppers to look for bargains.

San Diego brothers Jay Tanaka and Leo Tanaka started their Black Friday shopping at the Game Stop on Gateway Boulevard before heading to the mall. Black Friday is on pace to beat past year in terms of items orders.

Which? 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.

For years, Black Friday has started the holiday shopping season in the United States with retailers offering steep discounts.

The trend also suggests that consumers are less willing to hold out for potential online deals traditionally found on Cyber Monday, which is the Monday after Thanksgiving and has traditionally been the busiest day of the year for online shopping.

“It was full but the people weren’t too insane”, he said. “I see the opportunity to save some money”, Octavio Ortiz, a shopper, said. Retailers have also been spreading deals out more throughout the week which may have diluted the shopping. Macy’s Inc website saw such heavy traffic that it had to delay customers from entering the site at three different times. “I tried online shopping but didn’t get anything”.

All told, shoppers spent $5.27 billion in online purchases on Thursday and Friday, up 17.7 percent from the two-day period past year, Adobe said. The holiday shopping season, which runs through Christmas on December 25, can account for as much as 40 percent of retailers’ annual sales.

“There were a bunch of people waiting outside the store even before we opened, and everything is out there and pretty much gone”.

“Victoria’s Secret had five (items) for $25, and the Disney Store had 20 percent off of everything”, Juarez said.

While the Pueblo Mall was closed Thanksgiving Day, J.C. Penney and Sears got a head start to the weekend, opening early Thursday and remaining so.

“It used to be starting at 5 a.m.in the morning actually on Friday, but now we’re out there with everyone else on Thanksgiving”, said Melissa Gatchel of East Palestine.

“We really had an exceptional turnout of customers early on Thursday”, Parmar said. Bond said she never saw the appeal, but with a little coaxing from her sister Terri Caldwell, of Virginia, who was visiting Bond for the holidays, made a decision to hit the stores.

“From deceptive advertisements to email phishing, malicious digital e-cards to illicit apps, the holiday season presents scammers with the flawless opportunity to manipulate and deceive consumers”, Canton said. And last week, The National reported that the online mega-retailer Amazon.com was exploring a bid to purchase souq.com for Dh3.67 billion.

Also returning this year are the popular store maps highlighting the locations of hot products, from televisions to small appliances and toys to drones.

Best Black Friday 2016 Deals So Far.. “Whoever’s got the best deals, that’s where I go”.