Black Friday sales were up 28 percent this year and surpassed $1 billion
When it comes to retail sales, Thanksgiving weekend could be called the "Super Bowl of sales," especially for e-commerce. And this year was no different. Black Friday and Cyber Monday continued to be huge events for e-retailers to promote their holiday offers, and start the holiday shopping season strong. For those in retail, the results of these key shopping dates are more anxiously awaited than Santa himself.
So was a touchdown scored over this holiday weekend? According to comScore, yes!
"Despite the frenzy of media coverage surrounding the importance of Black Friday in the brick-and-mortar world," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni, "we continue to see this shopping day become more and more prominent in the e-commerce channel — particularly among those who prefer to avoid crowds at the stores. With Black Friday online sales up 28 percent and surpassing $1 billion for the first time, coupled with early reports indicating that Black Friday sales in retail stores were down 1.8 percent, we can now confidently call it a multi-channel marketing phenomenon."
Tryptophan didn't hold back consumers on Thanksgiving either, with retailers enticing consumers ahead of Black Friday, e-commerce sales were up 32 percent year over year for Thanksgiving Day.
Which categories will win MVP this year?
Cyber Monday saw Digital Content & Subscriptions continue to set the pace among product categories with a year-over-year growth rate of 28 percent. Consumer Electronics, buoyed by gains in smartphone sales, ranked second at 24 percent, while tablet sales helped the Computer Hardware category post a 22-percent growth rate. Video Games, Consoles & Accessories (up 18 percent) and Jewelry & Watches (up 17 percent) rounded out the top five.
While we are still early in the holiday shopping season, we can expect more strong numbers for e-commerce with the upcoming Green Monday (the second Monday in December) and Free Shipping day (December 17) shopping dates. These were both record-breaking days for e-commerce last year, exceeding the $1 billion mark with gains of 19 percent and 14 percent respectively.
With e-commerce numbers like this, it's definitely "game on" this year for e-retailers!
