Gray Thursday offset Black Friday sales

By admin November 26, 2012 20:49

Holiday shoppers spent $11.2 billion at stores across the U.S. this Friday, down 1.8 per cent from last year, according to a recent survey
Those lower in-store sales figures were impacted by more people shopping on Thanksgiving Day and a rise in online shopping this year
E-commerce sales rose 17.4 per cent on Thanksgiving and 20.7 per cent on Black Friday, compared with last year

Thanksgiving shopping took some of the wind out of Black Friday this year, as a recent survey shows in-store retail sales on the ‘busiest shopping day’ dropped from last year.

Holiday shoppers spent $11.2 billion at stores across the U.S. this Friday, down 1.8 per cent from last year, according to a Saturday report from the Chicago-based retail technology company ShopperTrak.

Those lower in-store sales figures were apparently impacted by hundreds of thousands of shoppers hitting stores on Thursday evening after filling up on turkey and stuffing.

Big chain outlets including Sears, Target, Toys ‘R’ Us and Walmart opened their doors as early as 8pm on Thanksgiving.

A sharp rise in online shopping likely added to the drop in spending at brick-and-mortar stores this year.

E-commerce sales rose 17.4 per cent on Thanksgiving and 20.7 per cent on Black Friday, compared with last year, according to a recent IBM survey.