2009 Black Friday Results and Cyber Monday Indicators

I did my part to boost the US economy this Cyber Monday by doing some Christmas shopping on amazon.com.

Did you?

What I didn’t do was find incredible bargains on Amazon or anywhere else I looked. Sure, there were some discounted items, but no more so than any other day of the year when I shop online – no major deals that inspired spontaneous purchases – no too-good-too-pass-up Cyber Monday promotions that warranted a run to the bank to seek a line of credit.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who felt that Cyber Monday passed by without much buzz.

“…instead of Cyber Monday, this year we really had “Black Weekend,” which started for many major retailers on Thanksgiving Day and will extend through at least Monday, if not beyond. The deals that most online shoppers will see on Cyber Monday 2009 are the same deals that could have been seen running on e-commerce websites all weekend. That’s good news for those who have been filling their virtual shoppng carts already. It’s not such great news for those who want to have a semi-legitimate excuse for shopping on the job on Cyber Monday…” continue reading

So what about Black Friday? While consumer foot traffic was very heavy, hands didn’t dig deep into the pocketbooks at offline cash registers on Black Friday 2009 . Maybe shoppers were just walking off the Thanksgiving Day meal from the day before? Black Friday sales in 2009 rose just 0.5 percent to $10.66 billion. This pales in comparison with Black Friday 2007, when sales rose by 8.3 percent on the day.

According to ComScore Black Friday analysis, it was a different story online, with Black Friday 2009 sales rising 11 percent from last year to $595 million on the day. Thanksgiving Day also enjoyed an increase of 10 percent from 2008 online sales figures.

Source: ComScore; Black Friday Boasts $595 Million in U.S. Online Holiday Speding, Up 11 Percent Versus Year Ago

Unique visits to the five leading online retail sites rose substantially on Black Friday 2009. Apple enjoyed 39 percent rise in unique traffic from 2008. Also seeing increases in unique traffic were Amazon, 28%; Best Buy, 24%; Walmart, 22% and Target, 2%.

So, online retailers seem to be fairing well this holiday season, although overall retail performance (on and offline combined) seems to be improving only slightly from last year. But improvement is good and it is still early with several big holiday shopping days left on the calendar.