November 28, 2012: Black Friday
Even though Black Friday was less than a week ago, IBM has already issued a downloadable report chock full of stats of interest to small business owners and entrepreneurs. Of particular note, the report says mobile traffic grew by more than 67 percent, and Thanksgiving Day itself was “a huge shopping day for consumers” who responded to the “early Black Friday promotions” from retailers.
Other highlights found in Black Friday Report 2012 IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark include:
Thanksgiving Day online sales increased 17.4 percent over 2011. Black Friday sales grew 20.7 percent over last year.
Nearly one-quarter (24 percent) of consumers used their mobile devices to visit a retailer’s site, up from 14.3 percent in 2011. Overall, mobile sales topped 16 percent, up from 9.8 percent in 2011, led by the iPad, which generated more traffic than any other tablet or smartphone.
Consumers perfected the art of multitasking while shopping, and simultaneously shopped in stores, online and on their mobile devices in search of the best deals.
Overall, consumers spent more money, though they also shopped at more outlets, leading to a decrease in the average order by 4.7 percent to $181.22. In addition, the average number of items per order decreased by 12 percent to 5.6.
What were consumers buying? IBM reports that health and beauty sales grew 11 percent from 2011, and clothing sales were up 17.5 percent. But the big winner was the home goods category, which rang in a 28.2 percent increase in Black Friday sales from last year.
There’s so much more in the Black Friday Report 2012 IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. It’s definitely worth downloading.
The numbers from the National Retail Foundation are also in-and they estimate consumers spent more than $59 billion over the Thanksgiving weekend, including Small Business Saturday.