Black Friday online sales top $6 billion for the first time. Cyber Monday is on track to break records too.
Online sales totals for Black Friday broke a record again this year, and they’re on track to make Cyber Monday the biggest online shopping day the nation has ever seen.
On Friday, shoppers racked up $6.2 billion in online purchases, up 24% from $5.03 billion during last year’s Black Friday, according to data from Adobe Analytics, which tracks U.S. shopping during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. That marks the largest Black Friday online spending total ever, Adobe said.
Cyber Monday was also expected to generate huge online sales. Adobe predicted that Cyber Monday would be the largest online shopping day ever with an estimated $7.9 billion in sales.
The holiday shopping season is crucial for retailers, which can bring in as much as 40% of their annual revenue in the final few months of the year. Analysts had predicted a growth in holiday spending this year because of low unemployment, rising incomes and a greater sense of job security.
The National Retail Federation trade group predicted that 164 million Americans would shop — online and in person — from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. About 70% were expected to shop on Black Friday. The group has forecast as much as $720 billion in total retail sales — including online and in-store purchases — for November and December.
The National Retail Federation declined to comment on sales totals for the Thanksgiving weekend because it had not yet publicly released data, but spokeswoman Ana Smith said in a statement that several of the group’s members reported sales were “above expectations.”
ShopperTrak, which tracks Black Friday foot traffic, reported Saturday that there was a 1.7% decline from last year. But the research firm predicts that eight of the season’s 10 busiest in-person shopping days are still to come, aided by the fact that this year there are four Saturdays in December before Christmas.
The Associated Press was used in compiling this report.
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