For weeks now, Adobe reports on-line retailers have been hitting consumers with emails heralding their planned discounts, contributing to on-line sales increasing by more than 14 percent on Black Friday compared to past year.
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ShopperTrak, another researcher, said that brick-and-mortar retailers’ sales decreased versus a year ago. Among online shoppers, 41 million people surfed for bargains on Thanksgiving Day, while 75.3 million shopped on the Internet on Black Friday.
Pam Garman, 60, said she was shopping with her daughters, who were visiting for Thanksgiving.
The average spending per person over the weekend totaled almost $300, and most shoppers were under the age of 35.
Christmas will be Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) scented this year, judging from Black Friday weekend sales.
The moves are significant because retail experts, investors and economists look to the group’s Thanksgiving weekend numbers to provide an indication of the mood of consumers heading into the holiday shopping season, a period of historically strong spending.
Of those who shopped in stores over the weekend, 72.8 percent (74.2 million shoppers) said they shopped on Black Friday, the biggest day of the weekend; another 34.6 million (34 percent) said they shopped on Thanksgiving Day and 46.8 million (45.9 percent) shopped on Saturday.
According to their website, www.bestbuy.com, customers also had the opportunity to take advantage of Black Friday offerings online, in addition to in-store.
‘The growth of click and collect in supporting store visits should not be underestimated, particularly for retail parks, with many shoppers now opting to buy online but to then visit stores to pick up their purchases’.
Combined sales for those two days, which have traditionally kicked off the holiday shopping season, totaled about $12.1 billion, according to preliminary data from ShopperTrak.
‘We expect today to be phenomenally busy and for it to get even more hectic later, ‘ explained Robertson. “The ease of online shopping through mobile devices now lets millions of people research what they want as well as make timely purchases any day of the weekend – a win-win for both retailers and shoppers”.
More than 103 million said they shopped online on Black Friday or the following day, the US retail lobby group said.
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Peggy Hayes, a spokeswoman for Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn, said merchants there were happy with the crowds they saw starting Thanksgiving Day.
