Black Friday Online Sales Reach Record High

RAPAPORT... US e-commerce sales hit an all-time high for Black Friday this year as more consumers turned to online purchasing amid anxiety over the pandemic.Digital spending increased 22% year on year to $9 billion, with consumers shelling out $6.3 million per minute, Adobe Analytics said Saturday. Not only is that total the highest on record for Black Friday, it is also the second-largest online spending day in US history, behind Cyber Monday last year."We are seeing strong growth as consumers continue to move shopping from offline to online this year," noted Taylor Schreiner, director of Adobe Digital Insights. "New consoles, phones, smart devices and TVs...are sharing online shopping cart space this year with unorthodox Black Friday purchases such as groceries, clothes and alcohol, [which] would previously have been purchased in-store." Consumers followed through on their intentions to shop at smaller retailers ahead of Small Business Saturday, with Black Friday sales at such establishments coming to 545% more than on an average day last month. Still, large companies gained as well: For the two days of Thanksgiving and Black Friday, e-commerce giants saw sales increase 403% over the October daily average, while smaller retailers saw a 349% increase for the same period.Shoppers are also spending more than last year: The outlay per day topped $2 billion on 24 of the first 27 days in November, Adobe said. Seven of those days surpassed $3 billion, up from only three days in the same period last year. Cyber Monday 2020 is set to become the largest online sales day in history, according to Adobe, which predicted the day's spending would rise 15% to 35% year on year to between $10.8 billion and $12.7 billion. Image: A man shopping online. (Shutterstock)