The Lure of the Deal: IBM Reports Record Black Friday Shopping

IBM Data reveals Record Online Shopping for Thanksgiving and Black Friday

There’s nothing like the for sale sign to bring shoppers out before the holiday season. IBM research just posted a report showing that shoppers went online in record number over the Cyber Weekend to hit the buy button.  I know that shoppers were shopping online as traffic here on The Recessionista was also up over the holidays as consumers looked at the posts here to find the deals. Highlights of the IBM data indicate that online spending was up significantly over last year’s cyber weekend, Facebook and Pinterest were social media networks that facilitated online shopping, and New York was ranked the number 1 city for retail sales.  Read on to see all the findings and see if you fit the profile.  Were you one of the shoppers making up this data pool? 

Over all, the IBM report shows a 9.7 percent increase in Thanksgiving Day online sales as holiday shoppers once again went online for the best deals–apparently right after eating their holiday dinner! This momentum set the stage for a record Black Friday with online sales growing 18.9 percent over the same period last year.  This data is the result of cloud-based analytics from IBM. Online sales for Thanksgiving, and 21.8 percent for Black Friday, surged according to the study as consumers went from the dinner table to their tablets or mobile devices to lock in the best offers.  In addition, IBM reported that New York City consumers led the way in Black Friday online sales followed by Atlanta and Los Angeles.   Not a surprise there, I think New Yorkers are ahead just based on time zone and publications within their fair city pointing the way to the deals.

Following are the conclusions of the IBM study.  Sadly, I think the study will convince retailers that it’s a good idea to open on Thanksgiving Day itself, as more profits were clearly generated by the early sales. Following are a few of the study highlights:

• Department Stores: Black Friday total online sales grew by 61.4 percent over 2012, with mobile percentage of sales growing by 46.4 percent. Average order value was $146.84, an increase of 15 percent year-over-year.
• Health and Beauty: Black Friday total online sales grew by 28 percent over 2012, with mobile percentage of sales growing by 65 percent. Average order value was $66.31, an increase of 3.2 percent year-over-year.
• Home Goods: Black Friday total online sales grew by 16.8 percent over 2012, with mobile percentage of sales growing by 24 percent. Average order value was $207.80, an increase of 15 percent year-over-year.
• Apparel: Black Friday total online sales grew by 50.4 percent over 2012, with mobile percentage of sales growing by 43 percent. Average order value was $123.31, an increase of 3.5 percent year-over-year.

Some of you may ask, how does IBM compile this data? The answer is by tracking millions of transactions and terabytes of data from approximately 800 U.S. retail websites. The aggregated data provides insight into real-time consumer shopping trends. What does all this mean to me? Look for the emergence of more special offers and coupons for mobile shoppers. In 2014, and the for the remainder of 2013, mobile may be where consumers can best leverage savings via special offers, deals and mobile apps.