Mobile use drives US holiday shopping gains

SAN FRANCISCO: Americans are turning to their mobile devices for deals to kick off the holiday shopping season, with retail trends increasingly upended by everpresent smartphones.

According to Adobe Digital Insights, the four-day Thanksgiving Day weekend that normally marks the start of the holiday season saw online sales of 36.5 billion, up seven percent from last year -- more than a third of that coming from mobile devices.

The latest figures showed the diminishing importance of events such as “Black Friday,” the blockbuster sales day following the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, and “Cyber Monday,” a tradition dating back to days when consumers waited to use their office high-speed connections for online purchases.

Data released earlier by the National Retail Federation showed relatively flat total retail sales for Black Friday, noting that 44 percent shopped online, compared to 40 percent who went in stores.

Plenty of bargain-hunters took a break from Thanksgiving festivities on Thursday to shop -- with online sales totaling 1.93 billion, and 40 percent of the total on tablets or smartphones (US$771 million), according to Adobe.

Data from IBM, meanwhile, showed US holiday retail trends catching on globally.

IBM said global retailers saw a 24 percent increase in online sales as the weekend kicked off, with a major British retailer reporting 2,100 hits per second in the early hours of Black Friday. — AFP