On Black Friday, more US shoppers chose the computer over the mall
NEW YORK: The Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday kickoff of the US holiday shopping season showed the increasing preference for online purchases, as more Americans opted to stay home and use their smartphones while sales and traffic at brick-and-mortar stores declined.
The ongoing shift to online shopping has forced retailers across the country to invest heavily in boosting their e-commerce businesses, and also highlights the impact of early holiday promotions and year-round deals on consumer spending.
The weekend also redefined the importance of Black Friday. For the past few years, Black Friday was believed to be waning in importance, but it is now turning into a day when shoppers do not necessarily flock to stores but spend heavily online.
Bill Park, a partner at Deloitte & Touche LP, said online sales are starting to complement instore shopping over the weekend, and for shoppers and retailers the two platforms are starting to converge.
This is happening more and more as retailers like Walmart Inc and Amazon.com Inc sell both online and through stores, making winning the transaction more important than where it occurs, retail consultants and analysts said.
Online sales rose more than 23 per cent, crossing US$6 billion on Black Friday, according to data from Adobe Analytics, which tracks transactions at 80 of the top 100 US retailers. On Thanksgiving, it estimated sales grew 28 per cent to US$3.7 billion.
Preliminary data from analytics firm RetailNext showed net sales at brick-and-mortar stores fell four to seven per cent over the two days, while traffic fell five to nine per cent, continuing the trend of recent years. No data was yet available for actual spending in stores.
In 2017, brick-and-mortar sales were down 8.9 per cent for the weekend year-over-year, and shopper traffic fell 4.4 per cent. In 2016, store sales were down 4.2 per cent and traffic was down 4.4 per cent, according to RetailNext.
The decrease in store foot traffic is a little greater than it has been in years past, though still within expectations, RetailNext spokesperson Ray Hartjen said.
Data from retail research firm ShopperTrak also showed that visits to stores fell a combined one per cent during Thanksgiving and Black Friday compared with the same days in 2017.
Brian Field, senior director of advisory services at ShopperTrak, said online sales have eroded traffic from retailers over the years, “but what we have noticed is that the decline is starting to flatten out... Overall its been consistent with where it’s been over the last few years.” — Reuters