While the economy is still far from being fully recovered from the 2008 collapse, there appear to be more and more signs that it is on the way up. While Black Friday in particular has been somewhat disappointing over the last few years, companies took it upon themselves to increase demand in 2011. For its part, Wal-Mart was one of several companies that offered Black Friday deals that were hard to ignore. Even shoppers who said they had no interest in hitting stores on the biggest shopping day of the year ended up spending on these deals.
The massive turnout was beneficial to several other companies including Amazon, which saw its best Black Friday ever thanks in large part to the launch of the Kindle Fire. Now research firm comScore is saying that online spending is up a whopping 15 percent from a year ago. The firm says that overall, shoppers spent $30.9 billion online from November 1st to December 16th. Over that same period online shoppers spent $26.9 billion in 2010.
Black Friday has long been billed as the biggest shopping day of the year, because it is the day after Thanksgiving and the unofficial start of the Holiday shopping season. According to comScore, the most recent Black Friday, and every other Black Friday has recently been eclipsed by the relatively newly founded Cyber Monday. According to the research firm that monitors all sorts of online activity, this last Cyber Monday (the first Monday after Thanksgiving) was the biggest online shopping day ever.
All of these numbers are seen as a positive for a retail market that had struggled mightily since the economy crashed. Holiday shopping can total up to 40 percent of a retailer's total sales numbers. Lackluster Holiday seasons can mean a lackluster year in total. comScore says that while the numbers have been impressive so far, retailers should expect a bit of a slowdown the closer we get to Christmas as people have made their purchases. Finally, comScore says that these numbers show just how much comfort the average American now has using their computers or mobile devices to do their shopping for them.
Edited by
Rich Steeves
