On Saturday, analytics firm RetailNext published a projection of traffic and sales for Thanksgiving and Black Friday based on transaction data.
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Using Bluetooth technology, Macy’s this year also gave shoppers a chance to win prizes such as a trip to NY, a shopping spree, a makeover and more if they downloaded the retailer’s shopping app and walked into the store from Thanksgiving through Saturday – an example of how retailers have been trying to blend the online and in-store shopping experience.
For Black Friday, known for its early-morning lines to snare those limited-quantity doorbusters and jammed parking lots, it was at least the second straight year that in-store sales have fallen, according to ShopperTrak. An analysis of Thanksgiving Day sales shows that the totals fell from slightly over $2 billion in 2014 to $1.8 billion this year. This year’s black Friday was considered the largest online shopping day of the year.
The Black Friday from last year’s exhibited long tails of customers brawling in stores. That compares with 133.7 million past year, but the group said those figures are not comparable because of its change in methodology. Shay said the word from Federation members is “over all people are very pleased with the way the weekend has gone”.
Brick and mortar stores saw a drop in sales on Black Friday, but online sales were up more than 14 percent with online shopping on Thanksgiving Day up 25 percent over previous year.
Brick-and-mortar stores lost sales and traffic. Target said on Friday it had a “strong turnout” in stores on Thanksgiving.
A more accurate measure of holiday spending will not be available until the Department of Commerce releases retail spending figures next month for November, and for December in January.
Shoppers are even starting to postpone some of their back-to-school purchases until later in the fall, in anticipation of such deals, Christopher said.
Footfall across the United Kingdom fell nearly 10pc during Black Friday and over the rest of the weekend, perhaps in fear of a repeat of last year’s chaotic scenes. Wal-Mart Stores Inc.(WMT) said its website was overloaded with demand on Thanksgiving Day (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wal-mart-website-struggles-to-handle-demand-for-doorbusters-2015-11-27-11103057), when its doorbusters were available online first.
One survey result is still comparable to last year, and supports the idea that shopping is less concentrated on days with popular names attached: More than 121 million adults will shop on Cyber Monday, and that’s down from 126.9 million last year.
“When looking at the way consumers research and spend this holiday season…”
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“Over half of a new product’s sales generally come in the fourth quarter”, DuBravac said. “I think we’ll see that trend with smartwatches this year”, he said.
