Buyers set a new record for Black Friday spend, only this year it was online.
Nervous about the coronavirus, Black Friday shoppers avoided the shops and took part in their keyboards on what is usually the busiest shopping day of the year.
According to Adobe Analytics, which analyzes website transactions from 80 of the top 100 US online retailers, online sales hit $ 9 billion the day after Thanksgiving, up more than 21 percent year over year. It was the first time that web shoppers crowned personal gift hunter the day after Thanksgiving.
This made Black Friday 2020 the second largest online spending day in US history after Cyber Monday last year.
The increase meant US consumers were spending at least $ 6.3 million per minute. CNBC reported.
And that record is likely to be broken on Monday. Spending is expected to range between $ 10.8 billion and $ 12.7 billion, up 35 percent from last year.
The Black Friday surge followed a record-breaking Thanksgiving Day online, said Kristin McGrath, online shopping expert at Ziff Media Group and editor at BlackFriday.com. Adobe Analytics said buyer spent a record $ 5.1 billion on holiday.
She noted that, with a few exceptions, stores weren’t open on Thanksgiving this year, but with fewer family gatherings, more shoppers had time to browse online. “Even in the past few years, we’ve seen a lot of online shopping on Thanksgiving,” she said. “We saw more this year.”
Game consoles, televisions, kitchen gadgets, smart speakers, and upgraded office equipment like laptops and printers have been some of the hottest things to do for families looking to stay home even more this winter.
With many local stores offering small shops for web shoppers on Saturday and Cyber Monday yet to come, domestic gift buying continues. The National Retail Federation predicted online sales for the season will grow at least 30 percent to $ 218.4 billion. This prognosis seems to be conservative with all gifts unpacked.
But unlike previous years, when “doorbuster” sales that lasted only a few hours, incentives for Crushing crowds to storm stores This year retailers have offered sales early and frequently. According to the NRF, online sales rose 10.6 percent in October as the launch of vacation deals began. According to surveys by the retail group, 42 percent of consumers started their holiday shopping earlier.
