The "Black Friday" boom. Records were broken everywhere (except in stores):
Bottom Line: While we're still waiting for the final figures for the full Thanksgiving and Black Friday impact in store sales, we have the online impact in-hand and it's remarkable. According to Adobe Digital Insights:
We spent a record $5 billion online on Black Friday
Online sales increased 16.9% year over year!
61% of the purchases were made from mobile devices
54% of the sales were recorded on mobile devices
So, wow. In separate research in-store traffic was off by about 2% on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. The increase online should easily be enough for new shopping records to have been set generally (the National Retail Federation is estimating a 4% increase from the weekend all-in) but the trend is truly remarkable. It's not like the internet or mobile sales are new things and near 17% increases year over year are pretty incredible numbers. It's somewhat notable that those who shopped online from a computer spent more generally than those on mobile devices but the trend is clear. It's a reminder, especially for small businesses, to have a mobile first strategy in mind and ensure that your website isn't designed primarily for those on a computer. This is the biggest mistake I see today with smaller businesses digitally. Most traffic is coming from mobile and it's only likely to grow.