U.S. shoppers made online purchases worth nearly $10.8 billion on Black Friday using their mobile phones, laptops, desktops and other portable devices.
Adobe Analytics reported a record surge in e-commerce spending on Black Friday. Online retail sales on this yearly festival of discounts reached $10.8 billion in the U.S., up 10.2% over last year. During the peak hours from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (ET), Black Friday holiday deals were being purchased at a staggering rate of $11.3 million per minute.
Reaching the $10 billion milestone marks a significant achievement for e-commerce on Black Friday, a day traditionally centred around in-store shopping, noted Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, in a statement discussing the Black Friday data. Remarkably, such an amount of Black Friday spending was recorded by Adobe Analytics for the first time since it began tracking online sales a dozen years ago.
According to Adobe statistics, in 2023, U.S. shoppers spent $9.8 billion online on Black Friday and $9.1 billion in 2022. The analytics firm predicts that online retail spending might hit new highs this holiday season, with consumers spending a record $241 billion online during the 2024 holiday shopping, up 8.4% from 2023.
The surge in online spending correlates with subdued in-person shopping, which decreased about 8%. This holiday season so far (from Nov.1 to Nov. 29), U.S. shoppers spent $107.3 billion online, with over a half ($56.1B) on mobile devices. Besides, the growing BNPL use accounted for $7.6 billion this season.
According to Adobe report, the top-selling products online included makeup, skincare, haircare items, Bluetooth speakers, and espresso machines. Online toy sales surged by 622% compared to average daily sales in October, while jewellery sales jumped 561%, and appliances saw a 476% increase.
Meanwhile, SaaS company Salesforce provided even more encouraging estimates for this year’s Black Friday sales. According to this firm, there was $17.5 billion spent in the U.S. that day, up 7% YoY. Salesforce also reported that global spending hit a record high of $74.4 billion within a Black Friday 24-hour period, reflecting a 5% increase compared to the previous year ($70.9 billion).
