Black Friday online sales up 11% - South Florida Business Journal:
Online sales were better than last year’s Black Friday, according to initial data from Internet tracking firm comScore.
The Reston, Va.-based company says e-commerce sales Friday were up 11 percent, totaling $595 million – the second-best online shopping day of 2009. While most retail stores were closed on Thanksgiving Day, the Internet is always open, and online sales Thursday totaled $318 million, up 10 percent from last year.
ComScore’s e-commerce totals do not include travel or auction sales.
“While this acceleration in spending suggests the online holiday season may be shaping up slightly more optimistically than anticipated, it may also reflect the heavy discounting and creative promotions being put forth by retailers that now encompass the use of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter,” said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore.
Monday, known as Cyber Monday, is traditionally the strongest day for online retail sales.
Last week, Florida Retail Federation President and CEO Rick McAllister suggested consumers were feeling better and that early sales have retailers painting a brighter holiday season.
ComScore (NASDAQ: SCOR) has predicted that overall holiday sales online, encompassing transactions in November and December, will total $28.9 billion this year, up a modest 3 percent from 2008. Online holiday sales in 2008 were down 3 percent from the previous year, the first decline on record.
Amazon had the most visits on Friday, up 28 percent from last year. Wal-Mart, Target, Apple and Best Buy were the next four most-popular sites. Apple’s traffic was up 39 percent from last year, the biggest year-over-year gain among most-visited sites.