Black Friday shoppers at Kings Plaza Mall in Brooklyn were surprised to find shorter lines and shorter wait times to get some of the best deals this year.
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“I shopped online yesterday and picked up most of what I wanted”, she said”.
Last year’s scenes of shoppers wrestling over cut-price televisions were not repeated in the early hours, but people who did turn up were seen loading up their trollies with high-value items.
Online retailers have been bombarding customers with email discounts and bargains for weeks.
The National Retail Federation expects retail sales online and in stores in November and December to rise at a rate of 3.7 percent – slightly less than last year’s 4.1 percent gain. “We have a large team dedicated all year to helping pull off Black Friday”. The department as well as apparel stores across the country saw “uninspiring” sales on Black Friday. Still, the online sales figure increased fifteen percent till Friday morning compared to the previous year.
The River Island and John Lewis websites were struggling to cope.
The retailer said: “There are record levels of demand for our website today and for some people it is taking longer than normal to shop on johnlewis.com. Please sit tight, confirmation will be with you shortly”.
Retail observers say many of those online purchases are coming at the expense of trips to physical stores, costing merchants more in shipping and depriving them of the impulse sales they often make to shoppers wandering their aisles.
Other retailers took the same approach.
“The Black Friday customer is really a die-hard and it’s all about the experience for them and if that includes bad weather, they’re out to experience it”, said Debbie Griesinger, with The Outlet Shoppes At Oklahoma City.
The company is predicting at least 250,000 orders by the end of the day with one TV being sold every six seconds and one games console every four seconds.
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A big reason for the declines is increased online shopping, as Americans hunt down deals on their smartphones, tablets and computers. “And I think that’s due to people really catching on to Cyber Monday”, shopper Berry said. Poor weather has been partly blamed for the disappointing numbers visiting U.S. shops, though the early Thanksgiving discount opening of many retailers, looking to head off the might of Amazon, is also believed to have contributed to today’s thin crowds. It starts Thanksgiving Day and continues through the very popular Cyber Monday.
