US shoppers spent over $1 billion (£624 million) during the country’s Black Friday – a marketing term for the day after Thanksgiving.
US shoppers spent over $1 billion (£624 million) during the country’s Black Friday – a marketing term for the day after Thanksgiving.
Rather than waiting until Cyber Monday on November 26, another key event in the e-commerce calendar, US consumers forced online sales up by 26 per cent to reach $1.04 billion during Friday November 23.
By comparison, the Black Friday of last year achieved $816 million worth of sales. The figure of $1 billion on a single day is a first ever for online retail and makes Black Friday 2012 the biggest online spending day of the year so far – a busy day for online payment services.
In addition, since November 1, US online shoppers have parted with $13.7 billion. This represents a 16 per cent increase over online sales seen during the same period last year.
As shoppers decided to conduct their sprees over the internet, it was no surprise to see physical retail suffer a loss in profits. Reports cited by comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni indicated that Black Friday – as a positive trend – is exclusive to e-commerce, with bricks-and-mortar sales down 1.8 per cent.
Meanwhile timesofindia.com says Amazon was the most-visited website on the day and, from November 23 of last year, posted the highest year-on-year growth out of the top five US online retailers.
Cited by computerworld.com, Mr Fulgoni said Black Friday has turned very much into a celebration for online retailers, as physical sales continue their decline.
“Despite the frenzy of media coverage surrounding the importance of Black Friday in the brick-and-mortar world, we continue to see this shopping day become more and more prominent in the e-commerce channel, particularly among those who prefer to avoid crowds at stores,” he commented.
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