Black Friday and Thanksgiving Day sales rose about 16 percent overall but shopping online, especially on a mobile device saw all of the gains, according to studies from the National Retail Federation and Adobe Systems.
Americans spent just over $12 billion at traditional stores over Thanksgiving and Black Friday, a decline from last year, according to ShopperTrak.
Shoppers spent almost $4.5 billion online over the two day period and online sales from mobile devices racked up over $900 million in sales.
“It is clear that the age-old holiday tradition of heading out to stores with family and friends is now equally matched in the new tradition of looking online for holiday savings opportunities,” said National Retail Federaiton (NRF) President Matthew Shay.
Looking at shopping traffic (versus sales) mobile devices were the winner in online visitors. Mobile devices accounted for about 57 percent of all online shopping traffic, up 15 percent since the same period last year, marking the first time mobile traffic has exceeded desktop traffic on Black Friday, according to IBM.
Looking at technology, a record-setting 91 million consumers are expected to buy technology or tech accessories during Black Friday week (the Monday before Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday), according to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), formerly the Consumer Electronics Association. That figure represents more than a third of US adults.
“Black Friday is no longer just a one-day holiday exclusively centered on in-store shopping,” said the CTA’s Shawn DuBravac. “Black Friday now spans the entire week, with online and mobile shopping playing an important role as consumers increasingly rely on tech to complete their holiday shopping.”
In total, a record 155 million U.S. consumers plan to shop during Black Friday and the surrounding week, with more than 70 percent of those shoppers (116 million Americans) planning to shop online. The most popular day to shop online this year will be Cyber Monday, with 26 percent of consumers planning to shop on November 30 – a jump of six percentage points from last year, said the CTA.
The top technology devices consumers plan to buy are:
1) Videogame consoles – up from fifth spot last year
2) Televisions – in second spot for the second consecutive year
3) Tablets – down from the first spot for the last two years
4) Laptops
5) Smartphones
6) Headphones
7) DVD/Blu-ray Disc players
8) Digital cameras
9) Digital toys or videogame figurines
10) Smart watches
Here are 20 top digital door busters for Cyber Monday according to USA Today.
Source: Fox News, pocketnow, CTA
Photo via CNN Money
