Black Friday: The Results Are In

Black Friday, known as the biggest holiday in retail, concluded last week. Gone are the days when Black Friday was a one-day event with door-busting deals. Black Friday now stretches out for multiple days, with many companies boasting deals from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. Some companies begin their Black Friday deals days (or weeks) before the retail holiday. Suffice it to say that Black Friday is huge; the results show how huge it was in 2024.   

This year was a busy year for Black Friday, even amongst inflation worries globally.   

According to Mastercard’s SpendingPulse report, U.S. retail sales (excluding auto sales) were up 3.4% from Black Friday last year. The National Retail Federation (NRF) found in its annual survey with Prosper Insights & Analytics that the five-day holiday weekend from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday saw an estimated 197 million shoppers, surpassing the company’s initial expectations of 183.4 million. This figure is the second-highest number in the survey’s history, after last year’s 200.4 million.  

“Thanksgiving weekend retains its prominence among holiday spending events and continues to play a significant role in the holiday season for both consumers and retailers,” says Matthew Shay, president and chief executive officer, NRF. “Even with this year’s shortened shopping period and the multitude of early sales promotions from retailers, this past weekend exceeded expectations in terms of the sheer volume of shoppers.”  

Related:Promotions Expected to Drive Holiday Shopping Beyond Black Friday

The way consumers shop has continued to shift. Numerator’s Black Friday weekend survey found that consumers gravitated toward shopping from home, with 52% shopping mostly or exclusively online, nearly three times what brick-and-mortar saw for the weekend at 18%. Black Friday was the most popular shopping day over the long weekend, capturing 74% of Cyber Weekend shoppers. This was followed by Cyber Monday (61%), the Saturday after Thanksgiving (47%), the Sunday after Thanksgiving (31%) and Thanksgiving Thursday (25%).   

Even though shopping online was popular, in-store shopping has grown. According to NRF, 81.7 million consumers shopped in stores on Black Friday, up from 76.2 million last year and the highest level since the pandemic. Though shopping online has captured more than half of consumers, the numbers are down. 87.3 million shopped online, down slightly from 90.6 million in 2023.    

NRF says top shopping destinations during Thanksgiving weekend were department stores (42%), online (42%), grocery stores and supermarkets (40%), clothing and accessories stores (37%) and discount stores (32%). For Numerator’s survey, shoppers said they shopped or planned to shop at Amazon (86%), Walmart (65%), and Target (46%). Best Buy (14%) and Temu (13%) were top destinations.   

Related:Holiday Forecasters Predict Modest Sales Growth

“Whether it’s tradition, the deals or simply an activity with friends and family, consumers continue to embrace Thanksgiving holiday weekend shopping,” says Phil Rist, executive vice president, strategy, Prosper Insights & Analytics. “Additional offerings like free shipping, a limited sale or promotion or a positive review helped convince most shoppers to move items from their shopping carts to the purchase finish line.”  

Numerator found that most (93%) Cyber Weekend shoppers purchased at two or more retailers/websites over the weekend. 31% shopped at three locations, 15% at four and 27% at five or more. According to NRF, while consumers shopped for several items over the weekend, many focused on picking up holiday gifts. On average, 86% of shoppers purchased gifts during the five days, spending $235, or $8 more than in 2023.   

93% of shoppers told Numerator they purchased a gift during Cyber Weekend shopping. 67% said that more than half or all their purchases were gifts, including 30% that said all their purchases were gifts. Top gifts purchased during this period included clothing and accessories (bought by 49% of those surveyed), toys (31%), gift cards (27%), food and candy (23%) and personal care or beauty items (23%), according to NRF. For both gift and non-gift purchases, Numerator said that the most common categories that shoppers reported purchasing were apparel & shoes (64%), groceries (34%), beauty or cosmetics (34%), toys/video games (31%), home goods (28%), consumer electronics (26%), gift cards (26%), books/videos / other media (21%), pet products (20%) and household essentials (17%).  

Related:License Global’s 2024 Holiday Gift Guide

Numerator also noted that 60% of the weekend’s shoppers also participated in events such as Prime Big Deal Days, Target Circle Week, Walmart Holiday Deals and more. These early sales had a slight impact on Cyber Weekend shopping, with consumers saying that the sales gave them a clearer idea of what they wanted to buy on Cyber Weekend (30%) and that they felt less urgency to shop Cyber Weekend because they had already taken advantage of good deals (26%). Shoppers say they spent less this weekend since they had already purchased many items they wanted (22%).  

Even with these sales, many shoppers noted the impact of higher prices. Numerator indicated that 67% of shoppers said rising prices had a moderate to significant impact on their holiday shopping over the weekend. Only 8% said rising prices had no effect. Over half (52%) said they are now seeking out promotions and coupons, 42% are buying fewer gifts, 35% are shopping at different retailers to find better prices, 35% say they have less disposable income due to rising prices on everyday essentials and 25% say they are purchasing items they need now during holiday sales in case prices rise in the future.   

With these inflation worries in mind, “buy now, pay later” plans drove 8.8% more in online spend than last year, according to Adobe Analytics. Mobile shopping (which Adobe noted made up 79.3% of buy now, pay later purchases) led to $686.3 million more in spending.  

For now, e-commerce continues to be king.  The Leading Licensees Report found increased interest in brick-and-mortar. Final e-commerce numbers, more easily measured than brick-and-mortar purchases due to centralized purchasing platforms used by numerous retailers, are in. Adobe found a rise of 10.2% from last year’s Black Friday to $10.8 billion. Salesforce says online sales in the U.S. rose 7% from last year to $17.5 billion, and Shopify merchants hit a record $11.5 billion in sales over the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend – up 24% from last year. Adobe added that between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., $11.3 million was spent online every minute, and the shopping frenzy peaked at 12:01 p.m. on Friday for Shopify users, when sales reached $4.6 million per minute. 2024 was a successful year for retail, but as economic conditions continue to shift globally, Black Friday trends may also shift.