Lines ’n’ bags back
Black Friday shoppers flood stores again
Despite fewer juicy deals, Black Friday shoppers dutifully opened their wallets and, for the first time ever, online sales fell as crowds returned to stores.
Holiday-hungry consumers spent $8.9 billion online Friday, according to Adobe Analytics. That was a slight drop from $9 billion last year.
The online blitz started well before Thanksgiving. Adobe data show consumers already spent more than $3 billion online on 19 separate days this season, compared with five days at this point last year, as stores rolled out discounts early.
There’s also been so much talk about shipping logjams and labor shortages — and so many e-mails advertising sales filling up inboxes — that many shoppers wanted to get a jump-start on the season.
“That really drove the early momentum,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights, adding that the early returns for the season show solid momentum.
“It’s a retailer’s dream,” said Rob Garf, vice president and general manager of retail for Salesforce.com, which tracks shopping data. Stores hope each year that shoppers get started early in the season, he explained. That will help the stores avoid “discount chicken,” where they lower prices to draw shoppers away from competitors as the holiday season goes on.
On Thanksgiving Day alone, online shoppers spent $5.1 billion before the pumpkin pie was finished, according to Adobe.
Complete data for in-store sales results was not yet released, leaving open the question whether online sales topped the in-person kind again, after taking the No. 1 spot for the first time last year. Pandya, however, said there’s usually about $4 spent in store for each $1 spent online.
Through 3 p.m. Friday, retail sales surged 29.8 percent from last year’s COVID-pressured low, according to Mastercard Spending-Pulse, which tracks both cash and credit payments. In-store sales leaped 43 percent from last year’s pandemic-suppressed state.
A good portion of the crowds rebounded as well.
Lines returned to metro-area stores like Manhattan’s Best Buy and Macy’s flagship in Herald Square on Friday, with shoppers stating they felt good to be out after staying home for too long.
The average discount on Thanksgiving Day was 27 percent in the US, a decline of 7 percent from last year, according to Salesforce.com.
Among the most popular items: Nintendo’s Switch and other game consoles, the Apple iPhone 13 and the Oculus headset. “If you can get a PS 5 it’s like getting a gold coin,” said Dan Ives, a tech analyst with Wedbush.
Well-publicized logistics problems have already created some concerns about receiving online gifts on time. Many retail Web sites are sporting banners warning online shoppers to place their orders early, in order to receive them
in time for Christmas.