Mobile purchases dominate as Black Friday online sales surge to $9.8 billion, up 7.5%...

[midian182]

In brief: In a sign that the economy is improving and consumers are less afraid to spend money on non-essentials, a record $9.8 billion was spent on Black Friday, up 7.5% from a year earlier. More than half that amount came from mobile purchases, suggesting people are more willing to make impulse purchases.

Adobe's insights into seasonal retail trends shows that during the holiday season so far (November 1 – November 24), which includes Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Eve, Thanksgiving, and Black Friday, $86.6 billion has been spent in the US on e-commerce shopping.

Black Friday alone brought in $9.8 billion in revenue. Speaking to CNBC, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, Vivek Pandya, said $5.3 billion of that amount came from digital purchases. It was a similar picture when looking at all the holiday spending to date: 49.42% was completed on mobile.

Pandya said influencers and social media advertising have made consumers feel easier about making purchases from their devices, helping fuel growth.

Black Fridays of bygone years were marked by scenes of shoppers crushing each other and fighting as hundreds waded into stores the second they opened. But the pandemic helped speed up the change to a more online experience, with retailers offering extra deals and discounts via their websites.

It's noted that Adobe doesn't track revenue that comes from in-store purchases, which according to Mastercard were up just 1% YoY. Online sales increased 8.5% compared to last year, further illustrating how more shoppers are abandoning brick-and-mortar stores in favor of online alternatives.

Total e-commerce spending for the holiday season, which includes today's Cyber Monday sales and will extend through the rest of the year, is forecast to reach $221.8 billion. That's up from the $210 billion generated in 2022 and $205 billion in 2021. While it can't match the 8.6% growth seen two years ago, 2023's 4.8% increase is still an improvement over the small 2.5% lift last year.

While increased yearly spending is good news for the economy and businesses, one indication that consumers are trying to avoid big individual purchases is the increase in Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) spending. BNPL purchases accounted for $6.5 billion during the holidays and $79 million during Black Friday, the latter marking a 47% increase compared to last year.

Adobe's analysis comes from one trillion user visits to US retail websites, 18 product categories, and 100 million unique items.

Today's Cyber Monday event is expected to generate around $12 billion in online spending. Make sure to check out some of our buying guides, highlighted deals, and best products in various categories.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/100964-mobile-purchases-dominate-black-friday-online-sales-surge.html

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Unsurprising. Shopping in person is only more of a PITA, with crazy drivers and adults with 0 social skills and rampant crime in big cities. You brave all that, and the store doesnt have what you need 90% of the time, or only has 1 brand, or is more expensive them amazon (and by more then a dollar or two).

Why would ANYONE want to go out on black friday anymore?

 

[Uncle Al]

I'm not surprised by the upswing in sales BUT I am surprised at the number of large ticket items that people are buying on line rather than in person. Things like large appliances, automobiles, etc. should always be inspected first hand before putting your money down AND states & the Fed should prohibit sellers from having restrictive return policies that are not required to be posted up front, in large 12 point type and cannot exceed two paragraphs on a single page.

 

[PEnnn]

Things like large appliances, automobiles, etc. should always be inspected first hand before putting your money down

Very true.

And especially large, expensive TVs. The color and the picture on the PC / smart phone screen will never look the same (better or usually worse, brighter / dimmer, etc) as when a human eye inspects it in person!

And then, when one is not really happy with their huge TV, good luck with the RMA, re-boxing the beast, taking it (hopefully it fits in their car...) to UPS or whoever for return shipment.

 

[BakaRed77]

No point in dealing with the lines in the stores. The discounts are not worth it and some of them are just a flat out lies that are the same everyday price with a "sale" sticker slapped on it. Honey app is nice to see if there is actually a sale online at least. I miss the raw cluster that Black Friday used to be when I was a kid. Every year you had to pick which store you were going to line up at and if it was Best Buy you would need to camp out. We had death every year because the deals demanded a sacrifice.

 

[viperfl]

This story is making it out like the economy is doing great when in fact we are headed for disaster. Credit card debt is over a trillion dollars because most people are now paying most of everything with a credit card. Of course it's been reported that Buy Now Pay Later has increased 47% this year. People are handing in their cars to the lenders or getting repoed at a record pace because people can't afford the car payments anymore. About 28% of new trucks on dealer lots are 4 months old or longer because they can't sell them. Who can afford a $90,000 truck with over $1,000 truck payment? Who can afford to own a house when mortgage rates are above 8%? This Thanksgiving it cost 60% more than last year. The reason why the sales amount went up because everything costs more, not because people bought more. The country is 34 trillion dollars in debt with a 2 trillion dollar deficit this year.

I hate being gaslighted.