Black Friday sales in the United States have been booming this year, and although retailers have started holiday discount campaigns earlier than last year, this has not reduced consumers' shopping enthusiasm on Black Friday.
Last Thursday was the traditional American holiday Thanksgiving. Black Friday is the informal name for the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It is seen as a barometer of Christmas sales performance in the retail industry and one of the most important and busiest days of the year for businesses.
According to consumption data from financial service provider Mastercard, the total retail sales of "Black Friday" physical stores and online stores in the United States increased by 3.4% year-on-year. Senior consultant Steve Sadove of the company stated that shoppers fully utilized seasonal discounts, but were more strategic when shopping.
Sadove pointed out that consumers choose to consume more targetedly. One trend is that more people tend to purchase goods online. According to Mastercard data, the sales of physical stores this year have increased by less than 1% compared to last year, while online sales have surged by 14.6%.
Jonathan Chin, co-founder and data director of research firm Facteus, further added that these data have not yet taken inflation into account. If adjusted for inflation, offline consumption will even become lower. This year's Black Friday online sales are expected to increase by 8.5%, while offline sales have decreased by 8%.
Online sales or setting a new record
This year's Black Friday shopping season is relatively short, with a total of 26 days from Thanksgiving to Christmas, which gives retailers a strong sense of urgency and makes many analysts not optimistic about the performance of chain department stores and large retailers.
However, the strong performance online masks the downturn offline. Adobe Analytics pointed out that the online transaction volume was around 10.8 billion US dollars last Friday, a significant increase from last year's 9.8 billion US dollars, and the consumption scale on Cyber Monday is expected to reach 13.2 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 6.1%.
Facteus stated that as of last Friday, e-commerce retailers including Shein, Temu, and TikTok Shop have shown strong growth in sales compared to the same period last year.
E-commerce platform Shopify also reported that its sales on Black Friday reached a new high, with global sales reaching $5 billion. Among them, the average shopping cart consumption of American shoppers is $157, with most of the added items being clothing, skincare products, vitamins, etc.
The American Retail Federation estimated in October that Americans would spend $902 per person during the Black Friday shopping season, $25 more than last year, and $16 more than the record set in 2019.