Today may be Cyber Monday, but U.S. consumers were not waiting to start their online holiday shopping. Black Friday, which is known as the biggest shopping day of the year for brick and mortars, saw e-commerce spending surpass $1 billion for the first time, reaching $1.042 billion in online sales. This is the heaviest online spending day to date, according to comScore, which provided the data.
Just for comparison, that’s up 26% compared to last year. Even Thanksgiving Day itself saw a 32% increase in online spending, reaching $633 million. For the first 23 days of November, there has been $13.7 billion in U.S. online retail spending, according to comScore.
“Despite the frenzy of media coverage surrounding the importance of Black Friday in the brick-and-mortar world, we continue to see this shopping day become more and more prominent in the e-commerce channel – particularly among those who prefer to avoid crowds at the stores,” said comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni. “With Black Friday online sales up 26 percent and surpassing $1 billion for the first time, coupled with early reports indicating that Black Friday sales in retail stores were down 1.8 percent, we can now confidently call it a multi-channelmarketing phenomenon.”
“Meanwhile, Thanksgiving Day – which has historically been a lighter online holiday shopping day – continues to gain steam and grew well ahead of the current pace as more consumers opted to kick off their holiday shopping immediately after the big meal to take advantage of aggressive retailer promotions,” Fulgoni added. “With Thanksgiving now behind us and most consumers returning to work…we can look forward with anticipation to Cyber Monday, which according to norms we’ve observed over the past three years should be the heaviest online shopping day of the season with sales approaching $1.5 billion or even higher.”
Well, Cyber Monday is upon is, and we’ll find out just how much consumers are throwing around soon enough.
Amazon, as you might have guessed, ranked as the top retail property for Black Friday, and it’s hard to imagine that Cyber Monday will be any different in that regard. Amazon was followed by Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Apple.
Digital Content & Subscriptions topped the fastest-growing product categories, according to comScore, increasing by 29% year-over-year. Following were Toys with a 27% increase, Consumer Packaged Goods with a 23% increase, Video Game Consoles & Accessories with an 18% increase, and Consumer Electronics, also with an 18% increase.
Apparel & Accessories was the actual top category for online spending on Black Friday, accounting for over a quarter of all dollars spent. This is noteworthy itself, as the category has historically ranked behind Computer Hardware.