Americans set record online Black Friday spend
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Americans set a new online spending record for Black Friday this year.
Driving the news: Consumers shelled out $9.8 billion Friday, a 7.5% jump from last year, Adobe Analytics reported Saturday morning.
- The momentum was set on Thanksgiving Day, which saw a 5.5% increase from last year to $5.6 billion, per Adobe data.
- Separate figures from Salesforce showed Thursday's spend rose just 1% to $7.5 billion year-over-year; yet Black Friday's online spending shot up 9% year-over-year, to $16.4 billion.
Why it matters: The tradition of whipping out wallets after the turkey and cranberry sauce remains strong, even as retailers launch deals earlier and as consumers remain in a relatively gloomy mood about the state of the economy.
- The earlier discounts trend took off in 2020 with the pandemic and also pushed more deals online in order to reduce crowds in stores.
The big picture: Even though inflation has cooled, consumer sentiment has fallen amid worries that the softening inflation trend could reverse.
- Americans now expect prices to rise to an annual pace of 4.5% over the next year, up from 4.2% in October and from 3.2% in September, the University of Michigan's consumer survey revealed Wednesday.
- Meanwhile, the latest Consumer Price Index as of October shows prices rising 3.2% year-over-year, down from 3.6% in September.
Be smart: Retailers ranging from Walmart, BJ's Wholesale Club, Coach and Kate Spade parent Tapestry, Dick's Sporting Goods, Best Buy and Abercrombie & Fitch have been sharing cautious forecasts about their all-important holiday quarter period.
- Bank of America found that out of 43 retailers that issued earnings forecasts, 37 (or 86%) came in lighter than expected, CNBC reports.
The intrigue: Americans appear to want to return to a tradition of shopping after the Thanksgiving plates are scraped clean.
- This year, 95% of people said they plan to holiday shop, up from 92% in 2022 and 88% in 2021, according to a late summer Deloitte survey.
- Respondents also said they plan to spend an average of $1,652 on holiday shopping — exceeding pre-pandemic levels for the first time, the results show.
What they're saying: "Black Friday re-asserted its dominance this season with record spend of $9.8 billion driven by new demand for the major sales' day," Vivek Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights, said in a statement.
- "The decline in online prices over the last year has created a favorable environment for consumers with strong discounts this season that are tempting even the most price conscious consumers."
Black Friday TV deals and other discounts
Zoom in: Adobe said Black Friday will be the best day for deals on televisions, with discounts averaging 22%.
Other top average discounts on Friday:
- Toys 28%
- Apparel 23%
- Appliances 19%
- Sporting goods 18%
- Furniture 16%
What to watch: Adobe said prices for these categories are expected to go even lower by Cyber Monday.
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