Black Friday revenue shatters past records
Shoppers across the United States crowded Wal-Marts, Targets and department stores nationwide on Black Friday last week. Media outlets reported that Black Friday sales spiked this year from 2011 revenues.
By Carter Ashforth, Staff Writer
Despite the current depressed state of the American economy, consumers broke record numbers for the 2012 Black Friday.
Jennifer Booton of Fox Business reported, “On Black Friday, which marks the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season, a record 247 million shoppers visited stores and web sites, up from 226 million a year ago, according to the NRF survey conducted by BIGinsight, which polled more than 4,000 consumers on Nov. 23 to 24.” Ultimately what contributed to the record-breaking sales this year was the huge increase in online shopping.
Zach Epstein of BGR stated, “For the first time in history, online retail e-commerce spending on Nov. 23, Black Friday, topped $1 Billion this year” according to comScore. This huge boom in online shopping on Black Friday was predicted in recent reports. Booton reported that Adobe is predicting online Black Friday spending to continue to grow by 12 percent every year. Amazon, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, and Apple were the top five most visited sites that yielded the most purchases.
There seem to be a few logical reasons for this huge consumer surge this year. Retailers pursued “aggressive retail promotions,” said Epstein and “door-buster deals,” said Booton. The recent inclination towards online shopping is likely an attempt to avoid the crowds and the prevalence of technology has made it accessible for more people to online shop.
Another common form of technology has made it easier to shop online for Black Friday: smart phones and handheld tablets. Panos Mourdoukoutas of Forbes wrote, “Mobile devices accounted for 26 percent of the visits and 16 percent of the purchases this year compared to 18.1 percent and 10.3 percent last year.” As smart phones and personal tablets become increasingly common possessions for Americans, there is a greater desire for digital content and subscriptions to download music, movies, TV shows, and books. Brandon Griggs of CNN Tech reported that spending on digital content and subscriptions has jumped up 29 percent over the last year.
The record-breaking profit of this year’s Black Friday shopping spree was primarily attributed to the staggering leap in online shopping and in the increasing ownership of smart phones and personal tablets. With personal technology becoming only more common over time, next year’s Black Friday will most likely exceed the monumental sales of this year.
