Despite fewer juicy deals, Black Friday shoppers dutifully opened their wallets, and for the first time ever, online sales fell as crowds returned to stores.
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Despite fewer juicy deals, Black Friday shoppers dutifully opened their wallets, and for the first time ever, online sales fell as crowds returned to stores. Holiday-hungry consumers spent $8.9 billion online Friday, according to Adobe Analytics. That was a slight drop from $9 billion last year. One reason for the decline: the online blitz started well before Thanksgiving Day. Adobe data shows consumers already spent more than $3 billion online on 19 separate days this season, as stores rolled out discounts early – some as early as September. There’s also been so much talk about shipping logjams and labor shortages — and so many emails advertising sales filling up inboxes — that many shoppers wanted to get a jumpstart on the gifting season. On Thanksgiving Day alone, online shoppers spent $5.1 billion before the pumpkin pie was finished, according to Adobe. The figure matched last year’s turkey day tally, but was at the low end of Adobe’s $5.1 billion- $5.9 billion forecast. Complete data for in-store sales results were not yet released, leaving open the question whether online sales topped the in-person kind again, after taking the top spot for the first time last year.
