Dive Brief:
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Online and brick-and-mortar sales over the Thanksgiving weekend fell 11% compared to last year, according to early results from the National Retail Federation.
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While some studies found web and mobile sales up over the weekend, the NRF found that the amount spent by consumers online over the weekend fell to $159.55, down 10.2% compared to 2013.
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Some 133.7 million people shopped, or planned to, over the Thanksgiving weekend, either in stores or online — down 5.2% from last year. Those that did spent $380.95 over the four days on average, a drop of 6.4% compared to last year, the NRF found. Electronics sales did better, with 45% of consumers buying in that category, more than any in the last three years, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.
Dive Insight:
Retailers were already advertising Black Friday discounts well before Black Friday itself, and that may be part of the story here, according to some observers. More retailers than ever opened on Thanksgiving Day in an effort to spur sales for the weekend, making Black Friday decidedly less of an event. The decrease found by the NRF could be attributed to shoppers who are expecting even better deals to come, or don’t believe that discounts will disappear after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
More alarmingly, as NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay speculated, the results might show that “there are a significant number of Americans out there for whom the recession is not yet over.” Indeed, in a stroke of bad luck for retailers, consumer confidence dropped just ahead of the shopping weekend.
Shay said that the NRF’s prediction of a 4.1% increase in holiday sales will hold, just that Black Friday has lost its luster thanks to retailers’ new approach of spreading deals throughout several days.
