More than 151 million people said they shopped either in stores, online or both over the weekend, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF) Thanksgiving Weekend Survey. The data, compiled by Adobe Systems Inc., tracked the purchases across 4,500 online stores in the United States.
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Specifically, Thanksgiving Day, a notably controversial day for retail, grossed an estimated $1.8 billion in sales, while Black Friday garnered an estimated $10.4 billion in sales. But its broad conclusions added to other research showing that in-store shopping was about the same as a year ago and that online shopping had jumped, putting total sales ahead of last year.
Wesbury believes the slow but steadily expanding job market, along with a modestly growing national economy, could bolster holiday shopping this year. More than half of shoppers (58 per cent) made additional purchases when picking up an item that was bought online in store on Thanksgiving Day or Black Friday.
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.
Black Friday may have been a bust this year for brick-and-mortar stores, but mobile shopping remains a bright beacon for the holidays and email marketers.
“Holiday shopping started well in advance of Thanksgiving weekend this year, but there’s no question that people were still incredibly eager to get their hands on the deals that retailers were offering on electronics, apparel, toys and even small appliances”, said Pam Goodfellow, principal analyst for Prosper Insights & Analytics, who conducted the survey.
Sales on Thanksgiving totaled $1.76 billion, down 12.5 percent. Checking out any Black Friday aftermath video post on YouTube or World Star will convince anyone that overzealous shoppers seeking out in-store deals can be a unsafe mix. While over $2 billion in Cyber Monday spending occurred on desktop computers, according to ComScore, mobile accounted for 49% of shopping visits and 28% of sales.
“It didn’t seem that insane”, Laishley said of her Friday trip to Meijer after she got off work. That’s below the almost $381 figure last year, but the group also said this year’s spending number is not comparable to those in previous years.
ShopperTrak attributed weaker in-store sales in part to curtailed Thanksgiving and Black Friday store hours compared to years past. “It’s like comparing this year’s apple to last year’s orange”.
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More than a third of all Irish consumers are expected to buy at least one present online this year.
