Online buyers increased by more than 30% on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and the Saturday after, but spending was lower than last year.
Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend spending was down this year even as crowds flooded stores.
According to NPD’s Checkout e-commerce information, significant increases in online buyer activity translated into mediocre spending increases on the key days. Declines over the past two weeks have dulled the season’s early lead over Holiday 2016 – cumulatively retail sales for the first four weeks are up 2% across the key general merchandise categories in NPD’s Holiday Shopping.
Week Ending November 25, 2017 Overall Performance
Dollar sales in the fourth week of November 2017 were 2% lower than they were the same week in 2016.
Prestige Beauty and Small Home Appliances were the leaders this week, each with double-digit dollar gains.
Top Performing Categories
Home Automation (driven by Security & Monitoring)
Kitchen Appliances (driven by Cookers)
Digital Media Speakers (driven by Streaming Audio Speakers)
PCs (driven by Notebook Computers)
Home Environment Appliances (driven by Specialty Cleaning/Robotic Vacuums)
“Once again we see practical gifting, and self-gifting, take center stage through Black Friday weekend,” said NPD’s Chief Industry Advisor, Marshal Cohen. “Consumers seem to have stored up their own home and beauty product needs in order to take advantage of great prices.”
NPD’s Checkout information shows that the number of online buyers increased by more than 30% on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and the Saturday after, in comparison to the same days in 2016, but only the Saturday after Black Friday saw the average e-commerce basket size increase more than 2%.
“The increase in shopping traffic didn’t result in more spending, so this holiday season has some catching up to do,” added Cohen. “With just three weeks left in the season retailers will be soon pressed into pulling out all the stops with store wide sales, in hopes of capturing more impulse purchases that will help to propel sales.”
