At first glance, it appears that Black Friday weekend did not materialize as hoped or expected this year. E-commerce emerged as the clear winner, while brick-and-mortar sales suffered for the official start of the Christmas holiday shopping season.
Adobe Analytics and Salesforce, which track online sales throughout the year, reported big gains in e-commerce spending on Black Friday. Brick-and-mortar sales, on the other hand, reportedly suffered from an 8.2 percent decline in store visits on Black Friday, according to Sensormatic Solutions. The company said traffic for the week of Thanksgiving, from November 24 to 29, was down 3.9 percent, and traffic for the full year, to date, is down 3 percent.
Sensormatic Solutions said it tracks only the mall visitors who enter a retail store. It does not include consumers who enter a mall but do not shop in a retail store.
Adobe Analytics reported that U.S. e-commerce sales on Black Friday amounted to $10.8 billion, or up 10.2 percent year-over-year. Adobe Analytics said it was the biggest Black Friday for e-commerce since it began tracking online sales.
“Crossing the $10 billion mark is a big e-commerce milestone for Black Friday, for a day that in the past was more anchored towards in-store shopping,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights, in a media release. Pandya added that the rise of digital shopping tools such as AI-powered chatbots, mobile wallets and buy now pay later (BNPL) options is driving “tailwinds that can prop up online growth for Black Friday moving forward.”
New research by PYMNTS Intelligence also showed that online channels overshadowed others. Just 28 percent of Black Friday shoppers bought entirely in-store, meaning 72 percent of consumers made at least some e-commerce purchases.
“That means 72 percent of shoppers made at least some purchases online. In-store Black Friday shopping, while still significant, primarily supplements online efforts,” that report said. “Although 56 percent of consumers still visit physical stores, that figure represents a slight decline from 57 percent last year and a greater overall decline from 62 percent in 2022.”
The report also cited data from Salesforce showing that 69 percent of Black Friday purchases came from mobile devices, up 1 percent from last year’s figures.
Salesforce, which draws data from 1.5 billion global consumers in its Commerce Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Service Cloud platforms, reported that consumers spent $74.4 billion worldwide on Black Friday and $17.5 billion in the United States. According to the company, U.S. online sales were up 7 percent over last year.
Mastercard SpendingPulse reported a 14.6 percent increase in Black Friday e-commerce sales this year, compared to just 0.7 percent for brick-and-mortar spending.
“Over the last several years, Black Friday has become more than just one day, but instead a window of time for shoppers to find value,” the company said in a media release. “While consumers were enticed by early deals in the days leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, Black Friday continued to reign as one of the biggest days of the season.”
According to the Adobe analytics report, on Black Friday, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. across time zones, Americans spent $11.3 million online every minute.
Adobe Analytics, which compiles its data by analyzing online transactions covering over 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, said traffic to retail sites from chatbot interactions increased by 1,800 percent year-over-year on Black Friday.
Mobile Continues to Grow
According to Adobe Analytics and Salesforce, over half of online purchases on Black Friday were conducted on mobile devices, and AI-powered chatbots significantly influenced purchases.
Digital Brands See Black Friday Growth
Shopify, the platform used by millions of online merchants and brands, reported today that it rang up global sales of $5 billion on Black Friday, with sales of $4.6 million per minute during the peak period.
What will Cyber Monday bring?
Image courtesy Banana Republic
