The company said it saw a 35 percent increase in buy-online/pickup in-store this year.
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Exhausted clerks are also ready to rest from the stress that can come with crowds of Black Friday customers.
But the predicted in-store chaos of previous year failed to materialise, with one expert claiming Friday’s discount bonanza was “like signing a death warrant” for retailers and more than a quarter of high street shops had d ecided not to take part.
Shoppers were out and about and many of them told 11 News they were exhausted having already hit the stores the night before.
Toys R Us opened its doors at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving and stayed open throughout the night. Many shoppers at Town Center at Cobb wore sweat trousers and sweat shirts.
Bonnie Greenhouse was shopping in JCPenney on Friday morning with her two daughters.
Bravin Taralkar, of West Des Moines, said he splits his holiday shopping between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
“My wife’s probably saved more, but I saved at least a couple hundred (dollars)”, Warten said.
The frenzy on Black Friday was straight out at the flagship Macy’s in New York City where it was estimated more than 15,000 people entered the store from its opening at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving evening. “The excitement continued into Thursday as reports of long lines outside stores on Thanksgiving and Black Friday were matched by reports of record-breaking online sales”.
IBM said smartphones were the device-of-choice for browsing deals and accounted for almost 45% of total traffic. “We’re having to pace ourselves but we try to have all ours done on Black Friday”, said Campbell.
“I came here at like 3.30pm, they open at five, so an hour and a half (early)”, said George, adding that he was happy with his purchase. The day was started in 2010 by American Express, and encourages people to patronize locally owned, brick-and-mortar stores.
Isn’t every day pretty much Cyber Monday nowadays?
It’s no surprise that online and mobile sales are seeing the biggest projections for growth in the retail industry. “We don’t have a plan because it gets to insane”.
Shopper traffic on Black Friday fell by 4.05% compared to a year ago, according to retail experts FootFall. “They are less than half and I think that’s brilliant”.
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The unofficial kickoff to the all-important shopping season showed more shoppers spending sooner and more frequently buying online.
