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Business establishments report more-than-expected sales from online shoppers this Black Friday despite inflation and high prices of products.
According to estimates, the sales reached around $9.12 billion. This marks the highest Black Friday sales since the pandemic’s start. Last year, businesses raked in over $8.92 billion during Black Friday, while in 2020, establishments saw a total of $9.03 billion in sales.
However, according to Adobe Analytics, the rise in total sales was due to the higher prices people must pay for the necessary services or goods they need for the holidays.
Adobe saw a significant rise in orders and purchases for Apple MacBooks and watches. These account for a considerable fraction of the 221% spike in electronic sales made online on Friday. Other items bought frequently include Xbox Series X, drones, and FIFA 23 and Pokemon Scarlet games.
Adobe believes that the discounts offered by many will remain over the weekend and the days following. Further, they expect people to spend around 8 billion more on Saturday and Sunday.
“While there is much speculation about inflation’s impact on consumer behavior, our data tells us that this Thanksgiving holiday weekend will see robust store traffic with a record number of shoppers taking advantage of value pricing,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay.
“We are optimistic that retail sales will remain strong in the weeks ahead, and retailers are ready to meet consumers however they want to shop with great products at prices they want to pay,” he added.
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Others expected less spending on Black Friday
Before the holidays began, experts predicted people to spend less. But, as evident in the statistics in two years since the pandemic’s start, the sales were low. And as inflation looms over the holidays, people expect less-than-usual buyers to go into the marts.
The National Retail Foundation said the economy impacts the way shoppers spend. The current trend leads over 60% of shoppers to think this way. This marks the highest percentage since the Great Recession of 2008.
“Consumers want better prices, so they’re waiting on the sidelines. So it’s going to really boil down to whether the stores blink first or the retailers blink first,” said Krish Thyagarajan from DataWeave Analytics.
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Shifting to October
A firm said that while people prepare for their November and December spending, some of their expenditures shifted to October. However, stores saw a spike in sales as the holidays kicked in. This suggests that people were willing to spend more even with some of their already poured a month before.
“While consumers continue to save the bulk of their holiday shopping for later in November and December, some of that spending has shifted into October. This year, 18% of holiday shoppers have completed at least half of their holiday shopping. While this is on par with last year, it is up from only 11% a decade ago,” said Phil Rist.
“An estimated 166.3 million people are planning to shop from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday this year, according to the annual survey released today by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. This figure is almost 8 million more people than last year. And is the highest estimate since NRF began tracking this data in 2017,” said the NRF in a statement.
