Online Black Friday Not Quite as Bad as Feared
If flat is the new up, then online retailers should be doing handstands: comScore says shoppers actually bought more Friday than they did a year ago. Well, just barely: The Web measurement service estimates that shoppers spent $534 million on Black Friday, up one percent from last year.
This is all about expectations: In any other setting those numbers would be a calamity. But given that online sales for the rest of November have been lower than the previous year, this constitutes good news for the likes of Amazon (AMZN).
Thursday’s numbers were even better: Thanksgiving day sales increased six percent over the previous year (click image to enlarge).
But two days of data aren’t enough to make comScore (SCOR) or anyone else rethink their overall predictions for the holiday season, which remain dour. ComScore thinks overall sales will be flat.
Separately, eBay’s (EBAY) PayPal reported that transaction volume on Friday increased 34 percent over the previous year and that overall sales increased 26 percent. PayPal claims that its numbers represent 12 percent of U.S. e-commerce, but I don’t think those numbers will be nearly as heartening for most big retailers, which aren’t depending on the online payment service.
Comments
My new 32″ LCDTV quest. I knew it was going to be doomed when I woke up at 9:30. Of course WM had been out by 5:05 and by then the rush was over. I live in the area where the 3rd and maybe 2nd WM was built so no need for GPS units to get close. After about ten years of fighting there’s a new kid in town and it’s called Target and they still had good stuff left at 2:00. In hand was a 26″ TV and a talking Garmin I wanted very badly even though I haven’t left town in years. Got to the checkout and my temporary charge slip had expired while my real one was in the mail back home. Went back to my truck parked in the construction zone, fought the traffic out and went home. When are they going to learn that there’s time for four of these before Christmas..whoever said one was all we wanted? So much for the terrible economy.
Posted by Robert Falkner at November 30th, 2008 at 9:53 pmJust one more thing about how gloom has gone pandemic and it’s most writers everywhere. For instance Citibank fell short as predicted last quarter but within analyists estimates. Whew… Wrong! The header read, “Citi misses..third quarter in a row”! Well surprise, surprise… Kerplummet! Here why not instead, “Black-Friday bucks economy!” Gloom is pandemic right now. Time to buy!
Posted by Robert Falkner at November 30th, 2008 at 10:51 pm