While Black Friday is usually characterised by in-store bun-fights and stampedes, statistics show an increasing number of US shoppers opted to do their early Christmas shopping online.
According to IBM's Coremetrics data, this year showed a 24.3% increase in online sales on Black Friday compared to 2010.
Further Web analytics from ComScore also reflect the same trend, with the firm reporting a 26% increase on last year's online sales.
Mobile shopping also recorded an increase, with IBM reporting that mobile traffic accounted for 14.3% of all retail traffic (compared to 5.6% last year). Actual sales on mobile devices also rose from 3.2% last year to 9.8% on Friday.
ComScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni says: “Despite some analysts' predictions that the flurry of brick-and-mortar retailers opening their doors early for Black Friday would pull dollars from online retail, we still saw a banner day for e-commerce with more than $800 million in spending.”
According to comScore, shoppers also took to the Web to conduct research before braving the shops. Several Black Friday deal sites were analysed for the five days ending Black Friday (21-25 November) and bfads.net was the most visited site with 3.9 million unique visitors, marking a 51% increase on last year.
The top online retailers also saw double-digit increases in visitors, with Amazon coming out on top followed by Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Apple.
“It is telling that the top multi-channel retailers also showed strong growth in visitors, demonstrating the importance of the online channel to the retail industry as a whole,” says Fulgoni.
Mobile mob
IBM says: “Black Friday witnessed the arrival of the mobile deal seeker who embraced their devices as a research tool for in-store and online bargains.”
Apple device owners were the most active mobile shoppers, with the iPhone and iPad accounting for a collective 10.2% of all online retail traffic (5.4% and 4.8% respectively). Android followed at 4.1%.
“Shoppers using the iPad led to more retail purchases more often per visit than other mobile devices, with conversion rates reaching 4.6%, compared to 2.8% for overall mobile devices last year,” says IBM.
According to the statistics, social networks generated just 0.53% of all online sales on Black Friday, with Facebook providing 75% of all traffic from social networks.
“Boosted by a 110% increase in discussion volume compared to 2010, top discussion topics on social media sites immediately before Friday showed a focus on the part of consumers to share tips on how to avoid the rush,” says IBM, adding that topics included out-of-stock concerns, waiting times and parking.
Smarter commerce
Chief strategy officer of IBM Smarter Commerce, John Squire, says: “The big winners were those retailers that delivered a smarter commerce experience with compelling, relevant deals that people could easily access from their channel of choice.”
Fulgoni says: “We now turn our attention to Cyber Monday, a day that Shop.org says will see eight-in-ten retailers running special online promotions.
“Last year, Cyber Monday was the heaviest day of online spending ever, with sales exceeding $1 billion, and we fully expect to see another record set this year.”
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