For the holiday season-to-date, $11.64 billion has been spent
online, marking a 13-percent increase versus the corresponding
days last year, according to comScore's latest analysis.
comScore today reported U.S. retail e-commerce spending for the
first 26 days of the November ? December 2010 holiday season.
Black Friday (November 26) saw $648 million in online sales,
making it the heaviest online spending day to date in 2010 and
representing a 9-percent increase versus Black Friday 2009,
according to comScore's analysis.
Thanksgiving Day (November 26), traditionally a lighter day for
online holiday spending, achieved a strong 28-percent increase to
$407 million.
"Although Black Friday is known for the flurry of activity
occurring in brick-and-mortar retail stores, online shopping is
increasingly becoming the refuge of those preferring to avoid the
crowds and long lines," said comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni.
"The $648 million in online spending this Black Friday represents
the heaviest online spending day of the season-to-date and a
solid increase over last year?s Black Friday. Interestingly, we
are also seeing consumers beginning to buy online in a more
meaningful way on Thanksgiving Day, which has historically seen
low buying activity."
As the online channel becomes increasingly influential in driving
offline shopping behavior, consumers are turning to Black Friday
sites on the web to conduct research in advance of the day?s
events. comScore analyzed eight Black Friday deal sites for the
five days ending Black Friday (Nov. 22-26) compared to the
corresponding days last year, finding that Black-Friday.net led
the pack with 3.1 million unique visitors, up 42 percent versus
last year. BlackFriday.info followed with 2.7 million visitors,
while Black-Friday2010.com (up 478 percent to 1.5 million
visitors) showed the greatest growth.
Some other notable findings about Black Friday deal-seeking
include:
- The number of visitors to coupon sites on Black Friday grew 4
percent versus year ago to 3.6 million visitors, while the total
number of visits to the category increased 16 percent to 7.4
million.
- BlackFriday.info was the most visited coupon site on Black
Friday with 630,000 unique visitors, followed by CouponCabin.com
(543,000), RetailMeNot.com (332,000 visitors) and Groupon.com
(332,000).
- ShopLocal.com ranked as the most visited comparison shopping
site on Black Friday with 2.1 million visitors, up 45 percent
versus year ago.
Four retail properties surpassed four million U.S. unique
visitors on Black Friday, with mixed results in comparison to
last year. Amazon Sites was the most visited retail property on
Black Friday, growing 25 percent from the corresponding shopping
day a year ago, followed by Walmart, which saw a marginal decline
of 1 percent. Target Corporation (up 9 percent) and Best Buy
Sites (up 1 percent) rounded out the top four.