BY: ZUNAIRA ZAKI, ABC NEWS
(NEW YORK) — Black Friday hit a new record with consumers spending $9.0 billion, an increase of 21.6% year over year (online sales hit $7.4 billion on Black Friday in 2019), according to Adobe Analytics data.
It was the second-largest online spending day in U.S. history, coming in behind Cyber Monday 2019. Adobe expects Cyber Monday 2020 to become the largest online sales day in history, with spending between $10.8 billion (15% year-over-year growth) and $12.7 billion (35% year over year growth).
U.S. consumers spent $6.3 million per minute shopping online on Black Friday, or $27.50 on average per person. $3.6 billion was spent via smartphones, a 25.3% increase year over year, reaching 40% of the total online spend.
In-store and curbside pickup increased 52% on Black Friday year over year, as many consumers looked to avoid in-store shopping.
Leading into Small Business Saturday, smaller retailers saw early success with sales 545% higher on Black Friday, compared to an average day last month, and a 211% boost in sales this past week compared to October.
Additional report insights
-Discounts continue: Discounts are expected to stay strong over the weekend, with the deepest cuts for toys (20%), computers (27%), electronics (25%), appliances (18%), and televisions (19%).
-Ecommerce giants vs. smaller retailers: Ecommerce giants (over $1B in yearly revenue) and smaller retailers both saw gains on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday: Large retailers saw a 403% increase in sales the past two days over the October daily average, compared to 349% for smaller retailers. While larger retailers have always performed better during Cyber week than smaller brands, consumers seem motivated to spend more with small retailers in 2020 as the gap shrunk by over 200%. Last year, large retailers saw a 380% increase in sales on Black Friday, and smaller retailers benefited from a 173% increase.
-Products in high demand: Toys: Hot Wheels, Hoverboards, and Lego Sets; Top-selling video games: NBA 2K21, Animal Crossing, Super Mario 3D All-Stars. Top-selling electronics: Apple AirPods, Apple Watches, Amazon Echo and Samsung TVs.
-Surges outside traditional holiday shopping: Electronics continue to be a hot-ticket holiday item, specifically smartwatches (+606% over October daily levels) and smart home items (+592%). Online grocery shopping remains popular, as Black Friday saw a 397% boost compared to last month. Personal care products surged yesterday, up 556%, while pet products and auto parts also saw increases at 254% and 269% from last month.
-COVID-19 restrictions on family gathering drive sales: In states that put COVID-19 restrictions around family gatherings, there was 265% higher year-over-year growth in online shopping over the last two days compared to states with less restrictions.
“We are seeing strong growth as consumers continue to move shopping from offline to online this year. New consoles, phones, smart devices and TVs that are traditional Black Friday purchases are sharing online shopping cart space this year with unorthodox Black Friday purchases such as groceries, clothes and alcohol, that would previously have been purchased in-store,” said Taylor Schreiner, director, Adobe Digital Insights, in a statement.
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