Black Friday sales activity rose this year both online and in brick-and-mortar stores. But online sales saw a far bigger increase than in-person shopping, according to research from Mastercard.
According to Mastercard’s SpendingPulse, Black Friday sales at physical stores grew by just 0.7% this year when compared to Black Friday a year earlier. But
online sales grew 14.6% this Black Friday, Mastercard reported
Black Friday spending overall rose 3.4% on a year-over-year basis, according to Mastercard’s SpendingPulse. This trend should continue throughout the holiday shopping season, which this year runs from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24. Mastercard said that it expects total retail sales during this year’s holiday shopping season to increase 3.2% on a year-over-year basis.
In more evidence that consumers were happy to spend online this Black Friday, Adobe Inc. reported that U.S. shoppers spend about $10.8 billion online last Friday. That figure is up 10.2% from the amount that online shoppers spent a year earlier.
Adobe identified Bluetooth speakers, makeup products and espresso machines as some of this Black Friday’s most popular online purchases.
Salesforce, though, said that online spending was even higher, reporting that U.S. shoppers spent $17.5 billion online on Black Friday, up 7% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce said that global online spending reached a new high of $74.4 billion last Friday, up 5% from a year earlier.
