Black Friday Online Spending Up Slightly

The economy is bad, and retailers were nervous, but reports are that online spending on Thanksgiving and Black Friday rose by 2%.

We all know the economy is falling at a startling rate, and people are cutting back on their spending. But retailers had a lot pinned on Black Friday, the busiest day of the shopping year, with plenty of deals in place.

Internet research company comScore has been keeping an eye of what’s been going on. They reported that for a combination of Thanksgiving and Black Friday, online spending was $822 million, for a 2% rise over last year. Taken alone, Thanksgiving Day saw a 6% increase and the Friday a 1% growth.

However, it’s not all good news. For the first 28 days of November, consumers spent $10.4 billion online, which is a 4% decrease on 2007.

comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni said:

“Early reports suggest that Black Friday sales in retail stores were slightly better than anticipated in this depressed retail climate, and that performance apparently extended to the online channel, which saw sales on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday combined increase 2 percent versus year ago. It’s probable that on Black Friday consumers responded positively to the very aggressive promotions and discounts being offered in retail stores, so it will be important to see how they respond to similarly attractive deals being offered online on Cyber Monday, the traditional kick-off to the online holiday shopping season.”

One phenomenon the company noted was that cyber shoppers didn’t start as early on Black Friday as those in stores, with the vast majority of sales taking place after 8am.

The big test will be to see how online retailers performed on Cyber Monday, which has proved in the past to be a bellwether for seasonal retailing.