Significance of Black Friday Records

     This past weekend, customers all throughout the country spent their time rushing to the mall and getting their hands on whatever sales were in place for the biggest shopping weekend of the year. Beginning with early store openings on Thanksgiving day, shoppers scooped up "doorbuster" deals left and right. According to a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation, approximately 139.4 million adults visited stores websites over the 4-day weekend.

     According to the NRF, individual shoppers tossed out more money; spending about $423 each this weekend, significantly up from $398 last year. Total spending over the four-day weekend reached a record $59.1 billion, a 13% increase from $52.4 billion last year, according to the National Retail Federation. The same survey found that customers really liked how retailers pushed to open stores earlier. Stores like Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, Sears, and Target, that allowed customers into their stores just as Thanksgiving meals wrapped up, saw a substantial boost. About 10% of this weekend's shoppers were out at stores by 8 p.m. on Thursday and an estimated 28% of weekend shoppers were at the stores by midnight, compared to only 24.4% last year.

     "The only way to describe the Thanksgiving openings is to call them a huge win," said National Retail Federation President and CEO Matthew Shay. "Thanksgiving shopping has really becoming an extension of the day's activities. Whole families are going." In a separate survey, ShopperTrak determined that the number of people shopping in stores climbed about 3.5% from last year to more than 307.67 million. ShopperTrak's founder, Bill Martin, said that traffic has not been this high since 2006. He also said that the return to pre-recession levels indicates a real recovery in consumer behavior. "We've seen that consumers are willing to shop a few extra stores," Martin said. "This could translate into more impulse buying and stronger sales."

     However, not everyone wanted to wait in line during the Thanksgiving weekend. According to statistics, online sales soared more than 17% on the Thursday of Thanksgiving, followed by a nearly 21% increase on Friday over last year, according to IBM Benchmark. Sales made from mobile devices climbed by 16%, with more than 24% of consumers using mobile devices to visit a retailer's website.
The National Retail Federation had predicted that looming fears over the nearby "fiscal cliff" and the struggling jobs market could weigh on holiday spending. That's why they estimated that holiday sales will rise by 4.1%, which is slower than the 5.6% increase last year.

     Matthew Shay says that between 65% and 80% of shoppers factor the overall economic condition of the country into holiday spending decisions. Its survey found that about two thirds of shoppers will pay with cash or debit, highlighting people's aversion to taking on too much debt in a still slow-recovering economy. However, retailers are hopeful that these strong Black Friday figures set a tone for a solid season of spending ahead. The Thanksgiving shopping tradition kicks off the holiday season sales blitz, wherein stores can make up to 40% of their annual sales in the November-December period.
"A single day doesn't make up a holiday season, but if you don't start off well on that day, you have trouble catching up," Martin said.

     Overall, what is significant about all of these statistics is that they are additional signs that consumers all throughout the United States are slowly gathering confidence in the economy once again. If this trend continues through the rest of the holiday season and even into the months following it, our country could be well on its way towards regaining the economic strength we all really miss before 2008 took place.

Source

http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/25/pf/black-friday-sales/index.html