Black Friday online sales set new record, retail traffic awaits

The twin threats of inflation and recession occurred on one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year. The good news is that online retailers probably had their biggest sales ever.

While brick-and-mortar stores also saw foot traffic, there weren’t long lines at checkout, leading analysts to wonder how much revenue this shopping experience will generate.

According to Adobe, which tracks sales on retailers’ websites, total online sales for the day after Thanksgiving — known as “Black Friday,” when retailers are said to go black — are expected to top $9 billion. Purchases could bring in more than $9 billion when the final numbers come out.

The strong Black Friday followed the online Thanksgiving Blitz, which was valued at $5.29 billion, up 2.9% year over year.

Adobe claimed that Apple watches and AirPods, smart speakers and TVs, espresso machines and game consoles are popular items.

Mobile shopping also peaked this year, with smartphone sales accounting for 55% of online Thanksgiving sales. Those sales are expected to make up 53% of total Black Friday sales, the company predicts.

The easing of Covid-19 restrictions has also spurred a return to the physical world.

“People went shopping today. We expected heavy traffic and big sales. We have brisk traffic and we’ll know soon if that translates into positive numbers for retailers,” Katherine Black, partner in the consumer practice at Kearney, told online news site Retail Dive via email Friday night. “In Raleigh, [North Carolina] We visited a variety of stores (Target, Best Buy, Macy’s, Bass Pro Shop) and while all had shoppers, none of them had early morning lines or completely full parking lots or long lines.

Adobe expects Cyberweek, which is the five days from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber ​​Monday, to generate about $34.8 billion in online spending, nearly 3% more than in 2021. Monday is predicted to be the biggest shopping day with expected sales of more than $11 billion.

Los Angeles has seen crowds return to brick-and-mortar stores in hopes of securing deals that will ease last year’s inflationary pressures.

The National Retail Federation said earlier this month that projected holiday sales are “healthy” overall, but that many will be bought on credit or buy-it-now, pay-later services.

The overall sales volume may also be illusory, the analysts noted. Inflation can increase sales volume even when people buy less. When the final balance sheet is drawn up, inflation-adjusted sales could be flat or even negative this year.