An avalanche of deep discounts and the growth of flexible payment options were the drivers of $9.8 billion in online sales in the United States on Black Friday, a record for the day. According to Adobe Analytics, sales increased 7.5% compared to last year’s figures (you can see them here).
Sales easily surpassed Thanksgiving numbers and growth rate, as well as Adobe’s own predictions for the day. On Thursday, American consumers spent $5.6 billion, an increase of 5.5%; Analysts initially predicted sales of $9.6 billion for Black Friday.
Salesforce, which uses different metrics than Adobe and says it analyzes the transactions of about 1.5 billion consumers, also said Black Friday online sales exceeded its expectations. They totaled $16.4 billion in the United States and $70.9 billion globally, and a record 79% of all shopping traffic (both browsing and shopping) was via mobile phones.
Black Friday is an emblematic shopping day, seen for years as the day on which the Christmas sales period begins, the most important for retail trade. These figures will bring some surprise Christmas cheer to retailers, who have been experiencing generally sluggish growth. According to figures from US Census Bureau, retail sales last quarter grew only 2.3% compared to the same period last year. E-commerce, which represents a younger and smaller proportion (around 15% of all sales), typically grows faster and last quarter also grew around 7%.
“Black Friday’s online sales performance exceeded any retail executive’s expectations,” Rob Garf, vice president and general manager of retail at Salesforce, said in a statement. “Retailers stepped up their discounts and shoppers, in turn, clicked the buy button.”
Adobe works with hundreds of online retailers large and small and says it bases its estimates on more than 1 billion visits to U.S. retail sites, the movement of about 100 million SKUs and 18 product categories.
Inflation of just over 3% is definitely lower than last year (when it topped 7%), but economic uncertainty continues to weigh on consumers, so it’s notable that buy now, pay later options like complement to other types of credit, it continued to grow in popularity. Adobe said that orders using BNPL increased 72% from last year during the week leading up to Black Friday, and that BNPL revenue as a result increased by $79 million during the period.
The big question will be whether retailers can maintain the growth rate over the next few weeks. The next big barometer-style sales day is Cyber Monday, in two days. We will provide more updates when those figures arrive.
Some other notable details from yesterday:
— Discounts continue to be a big driver of sales and reach up to 35% of the retail price. The name of the game is still buying gifts and home electronics.
– Smartphones accounted for $5.3 billion in sales that day, a whopping 10.4% increase from 2022 and accounting for 54% of all online sales. Adobe predicts that will be the norm for the period: Mobile device sales will surpass desktop sales this holiday season, he said, accounting for more than 51% of sales.
— Perhaps because people are still concerned about spending, they are opting for cheaper “standard” shipping more often than in previous years. (And, frankly, why get something faster now if it’s for a gift by the end of December?) Adobe said that 80.5% of all orders used standard shipping.
— Adobe believes “Cyber Week” (from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday) will rack up $37.2 billion in online sales in the United States, nearly 17% of all sales during the holiday period. Salesforce is more optimistic: It says it will account for 25% of all holiday shopping this year and total $53 billion globally.
“Black Friday reaffirmed its dominance this season with record spending of $9.8 billion driven by new demand for the biggest sales day,” Vivek Pandya, principal analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, said in a statement. “The decline in online prices over the past year has created a favorable environment for consumers with steep discounts this season that are tempting even the most price-conscious consumers.”
