Black Friday Weekend Retail Sales Up; E-Commerce Spending Surges

November 26, 2012

This article is included in these additional categories:

Financial Services | Mobile Phone | Retail & E-Commerce | Social Media | Uncategorized

Total retail spending hit an estimated $59.1 billion over the Black Friday weekend (Thursday through Sunday), projects the NRF, representing 12.8% growth from $52.4 billion last year. That increase was driven by a greater number of shoppers, particularly on Thanksgiving Day (+23.2%). In fact, in-store sales grew by an impressive 70.8% year-over-year on Thanksgiving, according to the Chase Holiday Pulse, though they dipped by 7.2% on Black Friday. But while in-store shopping may have been down on Black Friday, e-commerce spending showed solid double-digit growth, according to reports from comScore and IBM.

The comScore figures indicate that Black Friday saw a 26% year-over-year increase in retail e-commerce spend to pass $1 billion, making it the biggest online spending day of the year to date, and the first year that Black Friday sales topped that threshold. Thanksgiving Day saw an even greater year-over-year increase, of 32%, bringing its total to $633 million.

Meanwhile, IBM’s report [pdf] estimates slower – but still healthy – growth in e-commerce spending. The digital analytics benchmark put Thanksgiving Day online sales growth at 17.4%, and Black Friday growth at 20.7%.

Finally, the Chase Holiday Pulse indicates e-commerce sales volume rose by 9.7% year-over-year on Thanksgiving Day, and by 15.2% year-over-year on Black Friday.

Top Category on Black Friday: Apparel & Accessories

The comScore report finds that the apparel and accessories category was the most successful online category on Black Friday, drawing more than one-quarter of all money spent. Last year, it ranked behind Computer Hardware in the top categories list. The IBM report also shows solid numbers for apparel sales, up 17.5% over 2011, while the NRF survey found clothing or clothing accessories to be the most popular gift type among consumers (for both online and in-store over the weekend).

For the year-to-date, comScore reveals that the top-growing e-commerce categories are: digital content and subscriptions (29%), toys (27%), consumer packaged goods (23%), video game consoles and accessories (18%), and consumer electronics (18%).

Mobile Shopping Soars on Black Friday

Further details from the IBM report confirm the growing influence of mobile devices this holiday season. The report finds that 24% of retail site traffic on Black Friday came from mobiles, up from 14.3% last year. That led to mobile’s percentage of sales passing 16%, from last year’s 9.8%.

Apple devices were a strong contributor to this growth. The iPad accounted for close to 10% of online shopping, followed by the iPhone (8.7%) and Android (5.5%).

Other Findings:

  • Excluding auction sites like eBay, comScore data indicates that Amazon was the most-visited online retail site on Black Friday, ahead of Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and Apple. Overall, 57.3 million Americans visited online retail sites on Black Friday, up 18% from 2011.
  • Consumers shopped more frequently but paid less per order. Chase data shows e-commerce transactions up 29.9% year-over-year on Black Friday, with the average ticket value down about 11%. The IBM report shows average order value was down 4.7%, along with the number of items per order down 12%.
  • Also from IBM: referrals from social networks accounted for just 0.34% of online sales on Black Friday, a drop of more than 35% from last year.
  • Conversion rate from mobile devices (2.72%) trailed the overall conversion rate (4.58%).
  • Per the NRF, the average person spent 40.7% of their total Black Friday weekend spending online, or $172.42.
  • Department stores were the most popular shopping destination with an estimated 53.5% of shoppers visiting one over the weekend. 43.8% of shoppers visited a retailer website.

About the Data: The NRF data is based on a survey conducted Nov. 23-24 by BIGinsight, of 4,005 consumers.

Chart-Library-Ad-1

Explore More Articles.

Which Skills Are Important in RevOps?

Which Skills Are Important in RevOps?

9 in 10 RevOps professionals view data analysis skills as being important, a high percentage also don’t believe they need this skill for their job.

Marketing Charts Logo

Stay on the cutting edge of marketing.

Sign up for our free newsletter.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This