Holiday season sales will be a big sign on the health of the US economy. Analysts say that Black Friday traffic was bigger than 08.Some more positive news is the increase in ecommerce during Black Friday and Cyber Monday (the ecommerce’s version of Black Friday which takes place the Monday after Thanksgiving). Shop.org and BIGresearch say more than 96 million people shopped online on Cyber Monday, up from 85 million last year. Not only has traffic risen, but so has sales. The analyst firm Coremetrics says that online retail sales from Cyber Monday increased 16% from last year. Also ComScore shows that online retail sales (yoy) are up about 3% for Nov 1- 27, 9% for Thanksgiving Day, and 10% on Black Friday. Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy all saws online sales from Black Friday rise by at least 22%. Apple saw an increase of 39%. PayPal, the number 1 e-commerce payment service in the US rose 25% on Thanksgiving and 20% on Black Friday. These are all very bullish signs for the holiday retail season.
However, even with all these great numbers, there are some concerns. An early surge in traffic does not guarantee strong sales in the weeks to Christmas. With tight inventories, retailers may not offer the deep and broad discounts consumers are used to. Graham Jones, the VP of merchant accounts for PriceGrabber.com says that traffic is up, but consumers are opting to buy lower priced items than usual.
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