Best Buy a Winner on Black Friday

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As you’ve probably heard by now, the Thanksgiving weekend was an unexpected success for retailers as sales rose  16.4 percent over last year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).

Electronics was the second most popular gift, second only to clothes,  with nearly half of all shoppers buying technology, according to a Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) study.

As for online shopping, total online sales were up 26 percent on Black Friday from a year ago, said comScore. About 50 million Americans visited online sites on Black Friday, up 35 percent over last year.

Black Friday resultsBest Buy was one of the top destinations as it offered heavy discounts on TVs and Blu-ray players, said Reuters and NBC.

Best Buy was more aggressive in pricing this year than last with one analyst stating its discounts were steeper than Amazon’s in some cases.

“Last year, they weren’t as responsive with their pricing as they needed to be. We are seeing a different set of behaviors from them this time around,” said Lawrence Creatura, a portfolio manager at Federated Clover Investment Advisors, reported Reuters.

In online shopping over Black Friday, Amazon had 50 percent more visitors that any other retailer.  Walmart came in second for online traffic, followed by Best buy, Target and Apple.  All saw traffic increase by double digits over last year, said comScore.

In total a record 226 million shoppers visited stores or online sites from Thursday through Sunday, up from 212 million last year, according to an NRF survey.

U.S. retailers rung in a record $52.4 billion in sales over the Thanksgiving weekend, surprising analysts.

Almost 123 million people in the U.S. are expected to shop today, on Cyber Monday, up from nearly 107 million a year ago, said the NRF, referencing a BIGresearch study.

You can see more early details on weekend sales from the National Retail Federation here.

Source: Reuters,  CEA

 

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