Black Friday online sales surpass '23 thanks to double-digit discounts
Shoppers in Roosevelt Field mall for Black Friday sales may not have been able to find the same deep discounts offered online, experts say. Credit: Newsday/Howard Schnapp
Online revenue for the Black Friday sales season in the United States exceeded last year’s haul — with deep discounts luring inflation-wary customers — but was still below the most bountiful of recent times, according to analysts.
Online spending surged on Thanksgiving Day, with over $6 billion in sales, and on Black Friday, over $10.8 billion, which is up 10% compared with last, said Vivek Pandya, the lead insights analyst for Adobe, a San Jose, California-based software company.
“We just see a consumer who’s taking advantage of really competitive deals, and we’re seeing spending climb compared to the levels we saw last year,” Pandya said Saturday.
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, marks the unofficial start of the Christmas and holiday shopping season in the United States. It’s one of the busiest days for shopping all year. To lure customers, retailers offer a range of deep discounts.
Indeed, retailers offered double-digit discounts online for Black Friday: 27% on electronics; 22% for apparel; and 19.5% for sporting goods.
“We’re indexing to the levels that we saw prices at coming into the season,” Pandya said.
Another factor driving the discounting — how relatively late Thanksgiving was this year.
“Was Black Friday busy? Somewhat. Was it successful? Yes," said Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst at Port Washington-based Circana. "Was it as good as it was in year’s past? No. Is the delusion of Black Friday something to be concerned about? Yes.”
Still, he said, “In reality, the consumer is still gonna spend the same amount of money on the same amount of relatives and friends.”
Laura Nizlek, a spokeswoman for Mastercard, said the company found that retail sales were up 3.4% this year over 2023, with ecommerce sales growing 14.6%.
The top gifting sectors included jewelry, electronics and apparel.
“While consumers were enticed by early deals in the days leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, Black Friday continued to reign as one of the biggest days of the season,” said Michelle Meyer, Mastercard’s chief economist.
According to Sensormatic Solutions, traffic in stores was down 3.9% between Nov. 24 and 29, which is on track with similar trends seen year-to-date.
“Preliminary analysis showed shopper traffic on Black Friday was down 8.2% compared to 2023,” the group said in a news release.
The most popular time for in-store browsing was early afternoon, and as last year, the peak time was between 2-3 p.m., Sensormatic found.
What are the biggest items for sale?
Pandya, the Adobe expert, said: Electronics, apparel, toys, cosmetics and appliances “tend to perform really well.”
“Especially," he added, "because they tend to be both gifts for people buying for themselves, and for family and friends.”
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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