Black Friday Online Sales, Searches Up, Average Spending Down
Despite the lingering cloud of economic turmoil covering most of the U.S., the realm of e-commerce seems to be doing just fine, thank you. According to comScore, Black Friday saw a big boost compared to the same day last year.
The company said that $595 million in online non-travel (retail) sales were observed on Black Friday, an 11 percent increase from the $534 million spend on same day in 2008.
On Thanksgiving Day, $318 million was spent, up 10 percent from the $288 million spent last year.
A total of $10.57 billion was spent online during the first 27 days of November, the opening days of this year’s holiday shopping season. This was a 3 percent increase from the $10.25 billion spent in the same period last year.
“The $595 million in online spending this Black Friday represents the second heaviest online spending day of the season-to-date and a double-digit increase from last year,” said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore. “While this acceleration in spending suggests the online holiday season may be shaping up slightly more optimistically than anticipated, it may also reflect the heavy discounting and creative promotions being put forth by retailers that now encompass the use of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Cyber Monday – the traditional kick-off to the online holiday shopping season – and the subsequent weeks will be the real test for how online retailers fare this season. That said, this is a very encouraging start.”
BFads.net was the leading site featuring Black Friday deals during the five days (Nov. 23-27) leading up to the momentous day, as it attracted 3.9 million unique visitors, up 4 percent from last year.
BlackFriday.info was second with 3.5 million visitors, down 17 percent from last year. Black-Friday.net was third with 2.3 million visitors, up 136 percent from 2008.
Amazon Sites was the most visited online retail property on Black Friday, as its audience grew 28 percent from last year. Walmart was second and saw its audience grow 22 percent.
The National Retail Federation (NRF), along with BIGresearch, found that 195 million shoppers visited stores and Web sites during Black Friday weekend, which was up 13 percent from 172 million shoppers in 2008.
However, the survey found, average spending during the weekend dropped to $343.31 per person from $372.57 last year. A total of $41.2 billion was spent, according to NRF.
While 49.4 percent of shoppers visited department stores, 28.5 percent shopped online.
Google noted that the number of “Black Friday” searches was up by more than 20 percent compared to last year. Searches for “black friday sales” and “black friday ads” were both up by more than 50 percent from last year, according to a post on the company’s retail advertising blog.
Experian Hitwise also noted that online traffic to Black Friday advertising sites surged 87 percent during the week ending Nov. 21, 2009.
Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Sears and Toys ‘R’ Us received the most traffic during that week, according to the company.
Sources:</strong
http://nrf.com/modules.php?name=News&op=viewlive&sp_id=841
http://googleretail.blogspot.com/2009/11/black-friday-searches-rise-20.html
http://www.hitwise.com/us/press-center/press-releases/black-friday-2009/
