Black Friday as we know it is dying, but that's not all bad news for retailers
- Shopper visits to physical stores on Black Friday dropped 6.2%, compared to the same 24-hour period a year earlier, according to ShopperTrak.
- Meanwhile, online spending jumped more than 19.6% on Black Friday, totaling a record-breaking $7.4 billion, according to Adobe Analytics.
- The data reveals weakening demand for the in-store Black Friday deals that have historically been associated with chaos, long lines, and even violent outbursts in stores.
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Visits to retail stores on Black Friday continue to decline, as shoppers increasingly shift their spending online, new data shows.
Shopper traffic to physical stores dropped 3% on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, compared to traffic during the same two-day period last year, according to preliminary data from ShopperTrak.
Black Friday store traffic dropped 6.2%, while visits to stores on Thanksgiving Day rose rose 2.3%.
Meanwhile, online spending jumped more than 19.6% on Black Friday, totaling a record-breaking $7.4 billion, according to Adobe Analytics.
The data reveals the changing nature of the 24-hour period after Thanksgiving known as Black Friday, which has long been associated with chaos, long lines, and even violent outbursts in stores.
In-store deals are still important to shoppers, as shown by the uptick in visits on Thanksgiving. Some shoppers appear eager to grab those early deals in stores, despite some backlash against retailers starting Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving.
But with the decline in traffic on Black Friday, it's clear there's a weakening demand for in-store deals on the day after Thanksgiving.
This could be due to the fact that retailers are kicking off Black Friday deals many days or weeks ahead of the shopping holiday, and shoppers are responding.
By the first week of November this year, more than half of consumers had already started their holiday shopping, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. Those who had started shopping said they had already completed a quarter of their total spending.
The biggest driver behind the falling traffic on Black Friday, however, is shoppers' increased spending activity online.
Black Friday 2019 now marks the second-biggest online sales day in the US, second only to Cyber Monday 2018, according to Adobe.