The State of Black Friday/Cyber Monday
By Staff -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 12/1/2009 12:44:00 PM
About 195 million shoppers visited stores and Web sites during Black Friday weekend – up from 172 million last year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF) survey conducted during the weekend by BIGresearch. Consumers spent less on average: about $343.31 per person, down 7.9 percent from $372.57 in the prior year. Total spending reached an estimated $41.2 billion, basically flat to last year’s $41 billion. The NRF reported that 49.4 percent of shoppers went to department stores during the weekend, a 12.9 percent increase from 2008, while 43.2 percent went to discount stores, 29 percent, electronics stores; 28.5 percent went to websites; 22.9 percent, clothing stores; 19.6 percent grocery stories and 7.8 percent headed to outlet stores.Some 32.2 percent of shoppers purchased toys, an increase of 12.9 percent from last year. Sporting goods rose to 12.6 percent from 11.4 percent last year, personal care or beauty items climbed to 22.4 percent versus 19 percent last year, and gift cards rose to 21.2 percent from 18.7 percent last year. The most popular purchases were of clothing, at 50.0 percent, and books at 40.3 percent, nearly unchanged since last year. Some 31.2 percent were at the stores by 5 a.m., compared with 23.3 percent last year.
According to a survey conducted for Shop.org by BIGresearch, 96.5 million Americans planned to shop on Cyber Monday this year, up from 85 million in 2008. Contradicting the image of the day, the vast majority – 91.5 percent – planned to shop from home; 13.5 percent from work, 3.8 percent from a mobile device and 1.5 percent from another location.
This year 87 percent of merchants offered a promotion such as specific deals, one day sales and free shipping, compared to 83 percent last year. And fewer strings were attached: Half of those offering free shipping said they would not impose conditions such as minimum order amounts, up from one quarter of retailers in 2005.
PriceGrabber.com’s recent holiday survey found that 45 percent of consumers were planning to shop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with 80 percent planning to make a purchase on Black Friday and 66 percent on Cyber Monday. The survey also found that 70 percent of Americans planned to comparison shop this year, compared to 38 percent last year. Two thirds plan to spend at least half of their holiday budget online. 60 percent of online merchants plan to give more incentives and promotions this holiday and 17 percent will reduce inventory.
Retail Decisions reported that U.S. online retail spending reached $183 million between noon and 1 p.m. on Black Friday, an increase of 61 percent versus last year. By the end of the day, online retail sales had reached $3 billion, up 52 percent compared to last year. Retail Decisions predicts that online retail sales could hit $51 billion over the holiday season, up 23 percent over last year's $41.4 billion. The company has seen actual online retail sales surpass 2008 by 23 percent since November 1. Retail Decisions also forecast between 11.2 million and 12.8 million online transactions on Cyber Monday.
Black Friday saw $595 million in online sales, according to comScore, an 11-percent increase over Black Friday 2008. For the holiday season-to-date, $10.57 billion has been spent online, marking a 3 percent increase versus the corresponding days last year.Visitors to coupon sites on Black Friday grew 17 percent versus a year ago, to 3.3 million visitors. A Nielsen survey found that 63 percent of people are planning to buy online this holiday, compared with 71 percent last year. Of those planning to shop online, 31 percent said they planned to spend more than $300, down from 42 percent last year. Forrester expects online retail sales to reach $44.7 billion during the months of November and December 2009, an 8 percent increase over 2008. The average online order on Black Friday reached $170.19, up from $126.04 in 2008, according to Coremetrics, a data collection and analysis firm.
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