Shoppers had online cash registers humming at a record pace on Black Friday, as consumers spent $9.8 billion.
According to Adobe Analytics, which tracks more than 85% of the top 100 U.S. online retailers, customers spent more online than had been projected, USA Today reported.
This year’s online total was a 7.5% increase over the previous record of $9.12 billion set last year, according to the newspaper. That bodes well for Cyber Monday, which is one of the biggest sales days of the year.
Black Friday shoppers spent a record $9.8 billion in U.S. online sales, up 7.5% from last year https://t.co/FhrmW5YnNi
— CNBC (@CNBC) November 25, 2023
Last year’s sales on Black Friday were hampered somewhat by higher gasoline and food prices, CNBC reported. Consumers this year appeared more willing to open their wallets.
“We’ve seen a very strategic consumer emerge over the past year where they’re really trying to take advantage of these marquee days, so that they can maximize on discounts,” Vivek Pandya, a lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, told CNBC.
According to Adobe Analytics, 54% of Black Friday online sales were made over smartphones and accounted for $5.3 billion, USA Today reported. This year’s figure is up from 48% in 2022.
Adobe Analytics believes that this could be the first shopping season where mobile sales could top desktop purchases, according to the newspaper.
According to Mastercard’s Spending Pulse insights, apparel, jewelry and restaurant categories had considerable spikes in sales, CNN reported.
In-store sales increased slightly more than 1%, according to the cable news outlet.
“I do think the paradigm has changed around the in-store Black Friday experience, the long lines and things like that,” Pandya told CNBC.
Consumers are “more in the driver’s seat” when they are online shopping, Pandya said, adding that buyers can make side-by-side price comparisons more easily from their smartphones or computers.
Adobe Analytics estimates that Cyber Monday will be the biggest retail event of the year, driving a record $12 billion in sales, according to CNN. That would be a 6% increase from 2022.
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