Black Friday Sees Jump in Online Sales
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Apple's i Phone and Nintendo's Wii among the most sought-after items
From Reuters: Online sales jumped on Black Friday as consumers searched for electronics such as the Wii video game console and Apple's iPhone and iPod touch, according to eBay Inc and Amazon.com Inc.
Amazon.com and eBay had both forecast a weaker holiday this year as consumers cut back on discretionary purchases. But U.S. shoppers are scouring the Internet and stores for the best prices this season as they grapple with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
PayPal saw almost 34% more transactions this Black Friday than a year earlier, eBay said today. The eBay unit's sales rose 26% yesterday, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday that traditionally kicks off the U.S. holiday shopping season. PayPal said its sales numbers reflected 12% of all U.S. e-commerce.
Black Friday is best known as the day consumers crowd shopping malls, while greater online traffic is expected three days later on "Cyber Monday," when consumers use faster Internet connections at the office to make purchases.
Overall Web sales during the U.S. holiday season are expected to be flat at about $29 billion this year, according to tracking firm comScore.
Amazon.com said Apple Inc's iPod touch was the top-selling electronics item on Friday morning, followed by a Canon Inc PowerShot camera. Wii Fit and the Wii console were the top-selling items in the video game category, while the LeapFrog Tag Reading System was the best-selling toy.
The most searched-for product on eBay was Nintendo's Wii console and 3,171 of them were sold on the site.
On Shopping.com, another site owned by eBay, the most popular searches were Nintendo Wii Fit and Nintendo Wii. Other electronics were also popular, with a GPS navigation system selling every nine minutes on the site and an MP3 player selling every 11 minutes, eBay said.
From Reuters: Online sales jumped on Black Friday as consumers searched for electronics such as the Wii video game console and Apple's iPhone and iPod touch, according to eBay Inc and Amazon.com Inc.
Amazon.com and eBay had both forecast a weaker holiday this year as consumers cut back on discretionary purchases. But U.S. shoppers are scouring the Internet and stores for the best prices this season as they grapple with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
PayPal saw almost 34% more transactions this Black Friday than a year earlier, eBay said today. The eBay unit's sales rose 26% yesterday, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday that traditionally kicks off the U.S. holiday shopping season. PayPal said its sales numbers reflected 12% of all U.S. e-commerce.
Black Friday is best known as the day consumers crowd shopping malls, while greater online traffic is expected three days later on "Cyber Monday," when consumers use faster Internet connections at the office to make purchases.
Overall Web sales during the U.S. holiday season are expected to be flat at about $29 billion this year, according to tracking firm comScore.
Amazon.com said Apple Inc's iPod touch was the top-selling electronics item on Friday morning, followed by a Canon Inc PowerShot camera. Wii Fit and the Wii console were the top-selling items in the video game category, while the LeapFrog Tag Reading System was the best-selling toy.
The most searched-for product on eBay was Nintendo's Wii console and 3,171 of them were sold on the site.
On Shopping.com, another site owned by eBay, the most popular searches were Nintendo Wii Fit and Nintendo Wii. Other electronics were also popular, with a GPS navigation system selling every nine minutes on the site and an MP3 player selling every 11 minutes, eBay said.
posted by Chris and Frank at 8:44 PM
2 Comments:
I was at the Mall today and it was empty.. Black Friday and bleak Saturday, I hope that more people are going to come out as we might have to shut the doors before Christmas if we don't see things get better.
Tom,
Portland, OR
Tom,
Greetings to the Rose City, a place we know well and admire.
Your report seems to coincide with what is going on in other places as shoppers are staying home (saving gas) and looking for values/bargains online. This even as word comes out of a Walmart employee in New York who was trampled to death by a frenzied mob.
Word is also coming out that some retailers are already consigning inventory to overstock - just days after the "official" start to the buying season. A sad state of affairs, for sure. Yet maybe, amid the downturn in consumer confidence and the crisis in markets, something good can come from it all. Perhaps, JUST MAYBE, we'll all shop with something like the true meaning of the Holiday season in mind. It's a long shot, we know, but we can always hope.
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