Black Friday shoppers set online spending record, Adobe says
Bloomberg
Black Friday shoppers spent a record $9.8 billion online in the US, Adobe Analytics reported, offering a positive sign for retailers facing lackluster sales forecasts for the holiday season.
Demand for electronics, smartwatches, TVs and audio equipment helped boost the day’s online sales by 7.5% compared with last year. Consumers extended their budgets by leaning on buy-now, pay-later options, which climbed by 72% from the week before Thanksgiving.
The uptick marks a recovery from last year’s holiday season, when high inflation hit consumers’ pockets and retailers discounted heavily to get rid of bloated inventory. This year, holiday shopping is a bellwether for US consumer resilience as pandemic-era savings dwindle and interest rates remain at a more than 20-year high.
US online sales grew 9% year-on-year in a separate Salesforce
Online sales for the days leading up to Cyber Monday on Nov. 27 can give companies an early sense of holiday-season performance as they await slower brick-and-mortar data. Yet initial forecasts for November and December point to dismal sales growth.
In the US, Salesforce predicted online sales would grow 1% during that period compared to 2022, the slowest pace in at least five years. Adobe expects revenue to grow 4.8%, far behind the pre-pandemic average annual rate of 13%. The two companies analyze different transactions, which accounts for the variation in numbers.
Canada-based e-commerce marketplace Shopify
