Black Friday Sees Surge In Online Spending, Store Sales Show Minimal Growth, BBY, M, EBAY

An online news round up by Wall Street Journal throws up some interesting insights.

Retailers went all out to attract customers into their stores this season. While they were successful in drawing crowds, preliminary data indicates that they were not all that successful in converting customers. According to ShopperTrak RCT Corp, A Chicago based research firm that tracks sales in more than 50000 stores, shoppers spent close to $10.66 billion on Black Friday – an increase of just 0.5% over last year.

Electronics was one sector that can count this Black Friday as a success. Discounters were amply rewarded. Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) said that it saw increased customer footfalls across the country. However reports coming from Macy (NYSE: M) say that the crowd was much less compared to last year. Company sources put it down to recession and greater discounting by competitors.

The season also saw a trend away from general discounts. Customers were being choosy and were hunting for deals in products they wanted. Retailers across the nation also reported heavy crowds’ right from early morning. The rush in some places put off some customers and staff on numerous occasions had to bear the brunt of the customers rage.

A new trend appearing this year is the comparatively large amount of online purchases made by customers. Web Marketing analyst Coremetrics said that customers on an average spent $170 per order against S126 last year, a gain of nearly 35%. It also said that customers bought more items per order this year.

Customers also increasingly took to mobile phones to make purchases. PayPal (NASDAQ: EBAY) reported a rise of a whooping 650% in mobile online payments over last year. While some part of this huge increase can be attributed to a low base effect, there is no denying the fact that customers are increasingly using mobiles and internet to do their shopping.