The Billion-Dollar Weekend: Interesting Thanksgiving Data To Look At Ahead Of The Holiday

Thanksgiving has gone from being a family holiday, where people gave thanks for their luck and blessings, to a weekend that many dedicate to shopping. Over the past few years, this spending extravaganza has increasingly migrated online, marking the descent of the infamous Black Friday, and the ascent of the much more convenient and comfortable Cyber Monday.

In a recent article, Statista's Data Journalist Felix Richter looked into some online shopping figures for The Billion-Dollar Holiday. The analyst pointed out that last year, e-commerce sales on Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday all surpassed the $1 billion mark. In fact, 2014's Cyber Monday established a new record for "the single biggest online shopping day in U.S. history," exceeding $2 million.

But, will a new record be set this year? It's still a wait-and-see scenario but one thing is for sure: online retailers like Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, eBay Inc EBAY, Best Buy Co Inc BBY, and even Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. WMT, have much to be thankful for.

The chart below shows the evolution of online spending on Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday between 2008 and 2014.

A second chart establishes a very interesting comparison between Thanksgiving in the US and the Spring Festival/New Year in China.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.