Promos Boost Black Friday Sales
Early-bird promotions and price cuts on hot items helped boost retail sales over Black Friday Weekend.
Sales for Friday alone rose 6% to $8.96 billion, according to research firm ShopperTrak RCT Corp.
More than 140 million shoppers trolled the stores over the weekend, spending an average of $360.15, up nearly 19% from Black Friday Weekend last year, according to the National Retail Federation. NRF projects that total holiday sales will hit $457.4 billion, up 5% over last year.
Some 36% of Friday shoppers were in the store by 6 a.m., and nearly 59% had visited at least one store by 9 a.m, NRF’s annual Black Friday Weekend Survey found.
Most early-bird shoppers were on the hunt for specific, advertised deals: Nearly 86% bought items they had seen in ads, according to a separate survey by America’s Research Group. That survey, of 718 consumers, found that 81% of shoppers found the advertised item while 62% said they saw other goods that they planned to buy later when the items go on sale.
Price cuts on TVs, DVD players and video games prompted men to outspend women by 38% (an average $420.37 vs. women’s average of $304.30). Nearly 40% of men shopping on Friday bought consumer electronics or computer-related gear; about half bought books, CDs, DVDs, videos or video games, NRF’s survey found. (More than 40% of all shoppers bought clothing, the biggest seller over the weekend.)
“Retailers learned this weekend that men are willing to get out of bed for a good deal,” said Phil Rist, VP-strategy for BIGresearch, which conducted the survey of 3,090 consumers for NRF. “While women seemed to take a more casual approach to Black Friday shopping, men went out on the hunt and then went back home to bed.”
Discount stores still drew more shoppers than any other retail format, but traffic fell substantially this year, with less than 50% of shoppers visiting a mass-merchandise or discount store, down from nearly 61% last year.
The bricks-and-mortar momentum likely will boost online sales too, with 60.7 million consumers shopping online yesterday, “Cyber Monday,” according to a separate survey by NRF. The prime promotion online will be free shipping: Fully 83% of Internet retailers plan free-shipping promos this season, NRF said.
For more coverage on marketing at retail
For more coverage on research
