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Nov 26, 2018 - Economy

Brick-and-mortar stores cling to life, put Black Friday deals online

headshot
A sad looking Santa sits in a Christmas area of a shopping mall

Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

While brick-and-mortar continues to dominate shopping numbers, the trend is decidedly online, with foot traffic down this year, per CNBC.

The bottom line: To fend off Amazon, traditional retailers are surrendering at least in part to the inevitable — putting their in-store deals online.

"Brick and mortars are finally realizing, 'You know what? We have to be agnostic as to where we get the sale. We just want the sale.'"
— Moody's retail analyst Charlie O'Shea to Retail Dive.

By the numbers:

  • Online sales raked in $6.2 billion on Black Friday. That's a 23.6% increase from last year, per Retail Dive.
  • The boom continued over the weekend. Saturday saw a 29.9% year-over-year increase in online sales; Sunday, 22.9%, according to an analysis by Verizon Enterprise Solutions.
  • Shoppers are projected to spend a record-breaking $7.8 billion by the end of today, Cyber Monday, per Bloomberg.

But, but, but: Smaller stores will find it difficult to compete with Amazon on speed and price. The tech giant is offering free shipping all holiday season, regardless of Prime membership.

  • Amazon's rivals, Walmart and Target, are scrambling to compete. Target reported slower-than-expected growth in the third quarter and chalked it up to large investments in speedier shipping.
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