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by Lindsey Smith
If dealing with huge crowds, fighting for parking and waiting hours to purchase a product does not sound appealing, Black Friday shopping is probably not for you – until now. Over the past couple of years, shoppers have been able to purchase the same if not better deals online during Black Friday than if they were to shop in an actual store. In fact, more people shopped online than in stores during this past Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend.
Due to today’s ever-changing technology and our ability to do nearly anything over the internet, many things have changed, including consumer habits among Americans. For instance, according to Adobe Systems Inc., which tracks purchases across 4,500 U.S. sites, consumers spent an estimated $4.45 billion online this past Thursday and Friday, with Black Friday sales rising 14% from last year. This was a $623,000,000 increase in online sales since 2014!
These purchases are not only limited to your traditional desktop computers, in fact more than half of Black Friday’s online shopping came from mobile devices. Online shopping, especially on mobile phones, surged as more retailers offered the same promotions online. According to data from International Business Machines Corp., mobile devices accounted for about 57% of all online shopping traffic, up 15% since the same period last year, and the first time mobile traffic has exceeded desktop traffic on Black Friday.
Huge retailers such as Walmart and Target were not going to miss out on these potential online sales. For example, for the first time, Walmart put the majority of their door-buster deals online hours before offering them in stores, and Target had employees shipping online orders from stores before doors opened on Thanksgiving.
If this wasn’t enough to show the support of traditional decline in the way shoppers are making their purchases, here is another fun fact: according to ShopperTrak, this year Americans spent an estimated $12.1 billion at traditional stores over Thanksgiving and Black Friday, a decline of $190,000,000 from last year.
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