Good Friday Online Spending Explodes Toward $5 Billion

November 25, 2017 by Douglas A. McIntyre

As e-commerce continues to take over holiday shopping, Good Friday activity reached a new level. The sales number for the day was close to $5 million according to data from Adobe.

The research showed:

Based on Adobe Analytics data, $3.54 billion have been spent online as of 8pm ET, 15.6% growth YoY. Adobe affirms its forecast that Black Friday will reach $5 billion in online sales. The average order value (AOV) is slightly higher for this year’s Black Friday at $134, up 0.9% YoY.

The source of most shopping was particularly troubling to most researchers. People are searching and shopping on their smartphones, a way for consumers to shop for items in stores and then buy them from e-commerce sites online, a phenomenon know as “showrooming” Adobe pointed out:

Mobile set new records, driving $1.4 billion in revenue ($980 million from smartphones; $400 million from tablets); This represents 55.7% of visits (46.1% smartphones; 9.6% tablets), 10% growth YoY, and 38.9% of revenue (27.7% smartphones; 11.3% tablets), 9.6% growth YoY—both new records.

What the Adobe data does not show is where those smartphone shoppers shopped. Presumably, a number went to Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) the behemoth of e-commerce which is still growing rapidly.

To sum up the holiday season so far, Taylor Schreiner, director, Adobe Digital Insights said:

“The strong online performance of Black Friday this season shows that consumers are moving further away from leaving their homes to do holiday shopping. Mobile in particular has ramped up in a significant way, driving $1.4 billion in online revenue on Black Friday alone. The fact that nearly a billion dollars of this came through smartphones shows that hesitancy around shopping on smaller screens has begun to dissipate.”

If those smartphone consumers are not “showrooming”, the news is even worse for traditional retailers. At least a “showrooming” consumer might buy something in a store. By staying at home to buy gifts for the holidays, shoppers are driving the stake even deeper into the heart of traditional retail

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