154M shop during holiday weekend
Online shopping spikes, hits record highs
After a booming Thanksgiving weekend, retailers are indeed on track for holly jolly sales to cap the year.
Deep discounts wooed more than 154 million shoppers from Thanksgiving Day through Sunday, up from 151 million last year, according to the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics.
But the standout this holiday weekend was the spike in online shopping, which broke records as shoppers scouted deals on their tablets before heading to the mall, or made a final purchase with the click of a button.
The federation found in its survey that 43.8% of consumers shopped online during the fourday span, a 4.2% uptick over 2015. And Black Friday online sales topped $3 billion for the first time, jumping 21.6% over last year to $3.34 billion, according to Adobe Digital Insights. Meanwhile, mobile shopping saw its biggest day ever, ac- counting for $1.2 billion in revenue — a 33% jump compared to 2015.
“Black Friday may have just dethroned Cyber Monday’s position as largest online shopping day of the year,” Tamara Gaff- ney, principal analyst and director for Adobe Digital Insights, said in a statement.
In-store traffic didn’t appear to fare as well. The federation said that while 40% of consumers shopped at a store this holiday weekend, that was down 3.7% from last year. And preliminary data from analytics firm Retail Next found that in-store net sales dipped 10.4% on Black Friday, compared to 2015, while traffic dropped 10.6%.
“Black Friday is simply no longer the pinnacle event from years past,” says Shelley Kohan, Retail Next’s vice president retail consulting, on the dwindling need for shoppers to visit a store and stand in long lines on that particular day. Retail Next projects digital sales to grow 14.9% for this year’s overall holiday season.
Still, Kohan said the dramatic leap in shopping via smart phone or tablet is surprising. “I think going forward, mobile shopping will become more relevant because it’s more convenient, it’s easier, and
Millennials, who have the largest shopping power out there, are very comfortable shopping with their mobile devices.’’
Online shopping was just proving to be easier than trying to hit the malls. At the Tysons Corner Center in McLean, Va., Lydia Harris, buying perfume, pajamas and other merchandise with her sister Yolanda Spruill, said during the Friday rush that lines inside stores were getting long.
“Those lines. It’s time consuming. But it’s OK,” she said.
Though Black Friday may no longer be as singular a shopping event, the federation says that it was still the top day this weekend to shop, garnering 74% of those who shopped online, and 75% of those who browsed in an actual store.
The average amount consumers spent over the weekend was down to $289.19 from $299.60 in 2015, in part due to the steep sales prices retailers were offering. “It was a very strong weekend ... for retailers but it was especially good for consumers,” said President Matthew Shay, president of the federation. “Consumers were able to take advantage of some really incredible deals.”