Online sales on Black Friday reached record high despite soaring inflation in US: Report
Amid four-decade-high inflation in the United States, the country’s online shoppers set a record with purchases worth at least $9.12 billion, said a report by Adobe Inc’s product for data and insights Adobe Analytics. On the other hand, the retail stores witnessed less than usual crowds for the Black Friday sale.
The report by Adobe which tracks online marketing and web analytics said that online purchases were up by 2.3 per cent, year over year, starting the day after Thanksgiving. Adobe Analytics has access to data covering purchases at 85 per cent of the top 100 retailers across the US. The $9.12 billion is an increase from $8.92 billion last year and in 2020 it was at $9.03 billion, said the report.
Adobe also said that the largest contributor to this figure was electronics as online sales surged by 221 per cent since October for gadgets including Apple MacBooks and watches, Xbox, smartphones and so on. Additionally, toys were also among the popular categories for shoppers which accounted for a 285 per cent increase, and exercising equipment saw a surge of over 200 per cent when compared to an average day in October.
Over the weekend, Adobe said that they expect that shoppers will spend over $4 million on both days while they expect the total sales for Cyber Monday to reach at least $11 billion. More than 165 million Americans are expected to shop between Thanksgiving day and Cyber Monday which is the National Retail Federation’s highest estimate since it began tracking the data five years ago. Notably, the estimate is also eight million more than in 2021.
Furthermore, the NRF estimates that accounts for both in-person and online shoppers also expect more than 65 per cent of Black Friday shoppers to head to stores. However, reports suggest that across major cities in the US including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and so on, the stores were less busy than usual on Black Friday. The lower turnout in stores has also been attributed to people’s preference to shop online.
Despite record online spending since Thanksgiving, consumers' concerns about the economy are at the forefront with more than 60 per cent of Americans saying that their purchases for this holiday were hampered due to the state of the economy. In line with this many shoppers also opted for Buy Now Pay Later payments which saw a surge of nearly 80 per cent in use in the past week starting November 19.
