US online sales surged on Black Friday, with Amazon.com Inc offering the steepest discounts among e-commerce sites as it set the agenda for what has traditionally been the biggest shopping day of the year for brick-and-mortar retailers.
In-store shopping began to pick up in the afternoon, but the increase in customer traffic paled in comparison with the jump in online sales, analysts said.
Macy’s Inc Web site saw such heavy traffic that it had to delay customers from entering the site at three different times.
Photo: Reuters
Online sales on Friday hit US$1.70 billion as of 3pm EDT, according to Adobe Digital Index, after reaching US$1.13 billion for the day on Thursday, up almost 14 percent from a year ago.
The US-based National Retail Federation has said it expects total sales this holiday season to increase by 3.6 percent to US$655.8 billion, mainly due to the rise in online shopping.
This weekend’s shopping could reflect signs of faster economic growth in the fourth quarter this year. Nationwide US retail sales rose 0.8 percent last month, driven by a 1.5 percent jump in receipts at online retailers.
The lowest unemployment rate in eight years, 4.9 percent for last month, and a rise in hourly wage rates of 2.8 percent for the year, the biggest increase since 2009, are fueling consumer confidence and spending power.
“All of this adds up to the consumer feeling better about their current situation and I’m hoping they ... buy all of their gifts from Macy’s,” Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren told reporters.
The deepest average discounts for Black Friday came from leading online retailer Amazon, with an average of 42 percent off, compared with 33 percent off at Wal-Mart Stores Inc, 35 percent at Target Corp and 36 percent at Best Buy Co, according to e-commerce analytics firm Clavis Insight.
Amazon said Black Friday would surpass last year in terms of the number of items ordered on its Web site.
The Seattle-based company declined to provide specifics.
Both Target and Wal-Mart, two of the country’s biggest brick-and-mortar retailers, said Thanksgiving online sales were some of their best ever.
Online customer traffic could be up 20 percent over Black Friday from a year ago, Cowen & Co analysts forecast in a note, while store traffic is likely to fall 3 percent to 4 percent this year on Black Friday.
“We expect negative [store] traffic given [the] earlier start this year of the holiday selling season and rise of mobile, which could be as much as 60 percent or more of all traffic, and consumer exhaustion from a saturated promotional environment,” the analysts said.
At many malls, more consumers turned up as the day progressed.
US president-elect Donald Trump also stepped into the online sales excitement. On Friday morning, Trump’s online store announced it was offering a 30 percent discount deal on all campaign products, including a US$149 Christmas ornament.
“President-elect Trump loves a great deal,” a promotional e-mail said.
For years, Black Friday has started the holiday shopping season in the US, with retailers offering steep discounts. However, its popularity has been on the wane with the rise of online shopping and cheap deals throughout the year.
The holiday shopping season, which runs through Dec. 25, can account for as much as 40 percent of retailers’ annual sales.
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