This year’s Black Friday was the biggest ever for online sales in the US, as fewer people visited stores and shoppers rang up US$7.4 billion in transactions from their phones, computers and tablets.
That is just behind the US$7.9 billion haul of last year’s Cyber Monday, which holds the one-day record for online sales, according to Adobe Analytics.
Adobe measures sales at 80 of the top 100 US online retailers.
Adobe expects online sales to jump to another record this Cyber Monday, with an estimated total of US$9.4 billion.
SHOPPING TRENDS
Much of the shopping is happening on people’s phones, which accounted for 39 percent of all online sales and 61 percent of online traffic on Friday.
Shoppers were looking for Frozen 2 toys in particular. Other top purchases included sports video games and Apple Inc’s laptops.
All the online shopping might have helped thin the crowds at malls on Black Friday.
Traffic at US stores fell 2.1 percent from a year earlier, and there was a 1.6 percent dip in sales, preliminary figures from RetailNext showed.
Online and in-store shopping are not always completely separate, though. Many people buy things online, only to head to the store to pick them up.
Such sales surged 43.2 percent on Black Friday from a year earlier, Adobe said.
ADDED PRESSURE
This holiday shopping season in the US could be the most harried in years because it is the shortest since 2013. Thanksgiving this year fell on the last Thursday in November — the latest possible date it could be.
Much is riding on the success of the holiday season’s sales. The US economy is still growing steadily, and economists say strong spending by households is helping to bolster growth and make up for weak confidence among businesses given uncertainties about the US-China trade dispute and other factors.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last