MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
December 3 – December 10, 2009 Edition
Black Friday Sales Get Small Boost, Web Sales Soar
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/12/01/09–Black Friday (November 27) sales increased only slightly and shoppers stuck to shopping lists and bought many heavily discounted items, according to initial sales data. In addition, more consumers bought online, accelerating the trend of the past few years. Electronics remained the most popular category, including the Amazon Kindle which reported record sales in November. Cyber Monday was expected to be busier than last year.
According to the National Retail Federaton (via the New York Times), some 195 million people visited stores and websites over the long weekend, compared to 172 million last year. Average spending over the weekend fell to $343.31 a person, from $372.57 a year ago, while total spending was about the same as last year–$41.2 billion.
Internet sales on Black Friday increased 35% and consumers spent about $170.19 per order, up from $126.04 last year, according to Coremetrics (via The Wall Street Journal). Coremetrics also reported that shoppers bought more items with each purchase.
