ONLINE SALES GOING GANGBUSTERS FOR THANKSGIVING
Mobile devices ring up record in early shopping
Software firm Adobe projects about $2.7 billion will be spent online Friday and $3 billion Monday.
It seems you can have your turkey and snag great deals at the same time.
Early reports for early Thanksgiving Black Friday sales show a record number of consumers using mobile devices for shopping.
Software firm Adobe, which tracks sales at 4,500 websites, predicts $1.7 billion for the 24hour Thursday period.
Researcher Shoppertrack says retail stores rang up $3.2 billion in sales last Thanksgiving. The Thursday/Friday period generated some $12.29 billion in sales at retail, Shoppertrack says.
Target CEO Brian Cornell spoke to reporters shortly after stores opened Thursday and said he saw “really strong traffic” instore and expects “record breaking results” for online.
Thursday, between midnight and 5:30 p.m. ET, about $1 billion worth of sales had been generated online, up 22% from the previous Thanksgiving. More than 26% of the sales were from mobile devices. Adobe projects it will close the day at 29%, a record.
Adobe says the average discount is 24% and the sales were led by Star Wars toy products, the Pie Face Game and Crayola Super Art Coloring Kit, along with tech items such as Samsung 4K TVs, the heavily discounted Apple iPad Air 2, game consoles xBox One and Sony PlayStation 4 and the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones.
Adobe projects about $2.7 billion will be spent online Friday and $3 billion Monday.
Meanwhile, Thanksgiving Day shopping has grown in popularity as retailers have expanded Black Friday store sales from Friday into Thursday. This year, 22.3% of consumers are expected to shop on Thanksgiving, up from 18.3% last year, according to the National Retail Federation. Overall, nearly 136 million people are set to shop over the holiday weekend, up from nearly 134 million last year, according to NRF.
The biggest retail chains — including Walmart, Target and Best Buy, opened at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, while others waited for the traditional Black Friday — including Staples, T.J. Maxx and Marshalls.
Steve Diab of Carson, Calif., camped outside a Los Angeles area Best Buy on Wednesday night, hoping to nab one of the 50-inch TV’s from Toshiba that was being advertised at $149. He figures he’ll save $250 on the TV, but, “I’m buying cellphones and videogames, too, so it’s worth it.”
At a Nashville-area Best Buy, folks had the same Toshiba TV in mind. “Of course this is worth it,” said Shawn Sims. Sims slept in her car Wednesday to nab the first spot in line on Thanksgiving.