Mastercard: In 2024, total Black Friday sales in the United States will increase by 3.4% year-on-year, and online sales will increase by 14.6%.

Black Friday sales in the United States this year were hot. Although retailers started holiday discounts earlier than last year, this did not reduce consumers' shopping enthusiasm on "Black Friday". Last Thursday was Thanksgiving, a traditional holiday in the United States. Black Friday is the informal name of the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States. Black Friday is regarded as a barometer of the Christmas sales performance of the US retail industry every year, and is also one of the most important and busiest days of the year for various businesses.

According to Mastercard's consumer data, total U.S. physical store and online retail sales on Black Friday increased 3.4% year-on-year. Steve Sadove, a senior consultant at the company, said shoppers took full advantage of seasonal discounts but were more strategic when shopping.

Sadove pointed out that consumers are choosing to spend more selectively. One of the trends is that more people tend to buy goods online. Mastercard data shows that sales in physical stores this year have increased by less than 1% compared with last year, while online sales have soared by 14.6%.

Jonathan Chin, co-founder and data director of research firm Facteus, further added that these data have not yet taken inflation into account. If adjusted for inflation, offline consumption will be even lower. This year's Black Friday online sales are expected to increase by 8.5%, while offline sales will fall by 8%.

Online sales may set new records

This year's Black Friday shopping season is relatively short, with a total of 26 days from Thanksgiving to Christmas. This has given retailers a strong sense of urgency and made many analysts less optimistic about the performance of department store chains and large retailers.

However, the strength of online sales masked the downturn of offline sales. Adobe Analytics pointed out that online sales last Friday were around $10.8 billion, a significant increase from last year's $9.8 billion, while the scale of consumption on Cyber ​​Monday was expected to reach $13.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6.1%.

Facteus said that as of last Friday, e-commerce retailers including Shein, Temu and TikTok Shop all showed strong sales growth compared with the same period last year.

E-commerce platform Shopify also reported record sales on Black Friday, with global sales reaching $5 billion. Among them, the average shopping cart spending of American shoppers was $157, and most of the added items were clothing, skin care products and vitamins.

The National Retail Federation estimated in October that Americans would spend $902 per person during the Black Friday shopping season, $25 more than last year and $16 higher than the record set in 2019.

From Cailianshe