By Katherine Noyes E-Commerce Times
11/30/09 12:26 PM PT
Black Friday is the day shoppers line up around the block to take advantage of special sales at brick-and-mortar retail stores, but this year, e-commerce saw a healthy boost. That could mean sales on Cyber Monday -- the day e-tailers have come to expect more shoppers online -- will be better than originally expected.
Online shoppers took to their computers in droves on Black Friday, spending 11 percent more than they did a year ago and buoying e-tailers' hopes for a bountiful holiday season.
That's according to a report released Sunday by market research firm comScore, which counted US$595 million in online sales on Friday, making it the second-heaviest e-commerce spending day this year so far.
Some $10.57 billion has been spent online since November began, representing a 3 percent increase over the corresponding days last year, comScore said.
A 'Very Encouraging Start'
"Black Friday, better known as a shopping bonanza in brick-and-mortar retail stores, is increasingly becoming one of the landmark days in the online holiday shopping world," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.
This year's results were a "very encouraging start" to the online holiday shopping season, Fulgoni added.
Factoring in the brick-and-mortar shopping world, the overall picture is not quite as clear. The number of shoppers was up, but on average, they spent less than they did last year, according to the
National Retail Federation (NRF).
Specifically, 195 million shoppers visited stores and Web sites over Black Friday weekend, according to an NRF survey, up from 172 million last year. The average spending per shopper, however, dropped to $343.31 per person from $372.57 a year ago, it found.
"While retailers are encouraged by the number of Americans who shopped over Black Friday weekend, they know they have their work cut out for them to keep people coming back through Christmas," said Tracy Mullin, NRF president and CEO. "Shoppers can continue to expect retailers to focus on low prices and bargains through the end of December."
Black Friday Bargains
Indeed, promotions and special Black Friday discounts likely drove at least part of the jump in online spending that day, comScore asserted.
comScore studied eight Black Friday deal sites for the five days ending Nov. 27 and found that the most popular of those -- BFads.net, with 3.9 million unique visitors -- was up 4 percent over last year.
BlackFriday.info followed with 3.5 million visitors, while Black-Friday.net -- which was up 136 percent to 2.3 million visitors -- showed the fastest growth.
"Cyber Monday -- the traditional kickoff to the online holiday shopping season -- and the subsequent weeks will be the real test for how online retailers fare this season," Fulgoni concluded.
Hopes High for Cyber Monday
So far, the outlook is good, according to the NRF.
Some 96.5 million Americans are planning to shop online this year on Cyber Monday, up from 85 million in 2008, according to a survey conducted for
Shop.org, the NRF's digital division.
"Online retailers have been working overtime to make sure their Cyber Monday promotions are enticing, so shoppers can expect incredible bargains on popular holiday items, percentages off entire Web sites, and a lot of free shipping," said Scott Silverman, the division's executive director.
Nearly nine in 10 retailers are planning special promotions for Cyber Monday, according to Shop.org.
'Sales Could Peter Out'
What the remainder of the holiday shopping season will bring, however, is harder to tell.
Online holiday sales overall will grow 5.4 percent this year compared with last year's figures,
eMarketer Senior Analyst Jeffrey Grau told the E-Commerce Times.
Nevertheless, with all the discounts currently on offer, "people could end up doing the bulk of their purchasing early, so sales could peter out as the year goes on," Grau explained.
So, while the 11 percent increase comScore found on Black Friday "bodes well and shows that a lot of people see the Internet as a serious alternative to store shopping," Grau concluded, "it's hard to say what will happen in December."
'Still Lots of Shopping to Be Done'
Shop.org is "expecting shoppers' appetite for bargains to be incredibly strong, and we know retailers are coming to the table with lots of sales and incentives," Ellen Davis, vice president with the NRF, told the E-Commerce Times.
"Do we expect that to continue? Maybe on a more subdued level," she added.
The biggest week for shopping will likely be that of Dec. 14, Davis predicted, since that's when many free shipping offers will expire.
The good news for retailers is that "according to our research, shoppers have done slightly less of their shopping than they had" by the same time last year, she pointed out. "That's encouraging, because it means there's still lots of shopping to be done."
MiKandi Opens XXX Android App Store November 30, 2009
The Android platform certainly is growing up fast. A company called "MiKandi" is opening its own Android application storefront where developers can sell apps featuring adult content -- a sort of red-light alternative to the mainstream Android Market. Apps that developers sell through MiKandi's store generally won't be censored, as long as they're legal.
Related Stories
Black Friday Rosier Than Expected December 01, 2008
Teetering consumer confidence bogged down online sales growth for 2008's Black Friday, the day when retailers at both online and brick-and-mortar stores anticipate huge buyer turnout. Given recent economic conditions, however, it wasn't as bleak as some had predicted; the National Retail Federation described the overall mood as "a collective sigh of relief."
Apple on Black Friday: Blowout Bonanza or Business as Usual? November 13, 2008
For U.S. retailers, Christmas comes early every year on a day called "Black Friday." The day after Thanksgiving, prices are cut and mountains of products move out the door. Traditionally, the sales at Apple's retail outlets have been conservative -- a few bucks off an iMac or an iPod, perhaps, but nothing drastic. However, competing retailers are gearing up to cut especially deep this year. Might Apple follow suit?
Black Duck Offers Developers a New Tool to Manage Code January 28, 2008
Code Center gives development companies a tool to search what is available in open source projects. Black Duck's database of open source code knowledge includes information on more than 150,000 components and is growing larger all the time, said Bill McQuaide, executive vice president of product development for Black Duck Software.
More by Katherine Noyes
Are Amazon's New Kindles Tablets-in-Training? July 30, 2010
Will the Kindle grow up to be a real tablet computer someday? Amazon's inclusion of new capabilities in its unassuming WebKit browser suggests that the possibility might not be too far-fetched. Ultimately, Apple and Amazon will both move toward "the goal of a multipurpose appliance for browsing, reading and low-intensity interaction," predicted Paul Gillin, author of The New Influencers.
That Cute Android Wallpaper May Be Sending Your Data to China July 30, 2010
What's a nice app like "My Little Pony" doing in Shenzhen? Delivering the personal information of millions of Android users to a mysterious website, that's what. The App Genome Project has found that a large proportion of mobile apps -- not just this one -- contain third-party code with the ability to interact with sensitive data in a way that may not be apparent to users or developers, but their intentions may not be malicious.
Europe's Tender Words About FOSS July 29, 2010
For the time being and near future, "software development can only be performed by certain high priests and will still be perceived to be a near-religious magic by the general public," Slashdot blogger eldavojohn predicted. "Frankly, unless there's a large shift in mentality, Neelie Kroes is going to be one of the few politicians trying to 'wake up' the public -- even in Europe."
Headline Feeds
spending day this year so far.
Talkback: 
