Thanksgiving Shopping Goes Global

If you believe Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping was just limited to U.S. retailers, think again, as recent findings from International Business Machines Corp. IBM shows that retailers outside the United States too have seen significant growth in online sales this year during these days.

Following are the key findings from IBM:

• Online sales for global retailers increased (23.9 percent over 2015. IBM said a major U.K. retailer saw 2,100 hits to their website per second in the early hours of Black Friday shopping.
• Online sales for global retailers rose 28.4 percent over 2015.
• Global retailers saw online sales up 19.5 percent in these four days over the same period last year.
• U.S. retailers’ online sales climbed 9.3 percent in the four-day period.
• U.S. retailers’ Thanksgiving online sales increased 11.7 percent.
• On Black Friday, U.S. retailers saw online sales grow by 9.3 percent.
• IBM predicts that double digit in rise in online sales on Cyber Monday and expects overall 2016 online sales (November and December) for retailers will increase 13.89 percent over 2015.

The SPDR S&P Retail (ETF) XRT is up 2.42 percent since November 22.