Black Friday is the day that shoppers in the US go rabid for one-day-only in-store deals, but with the rise of e-commerce it has increasingly become an online phenomenon, too (which offers a safer option than braving the crowds at Walmart). And with the amount of mobile devices in use today, much of these online sales are taking place on the mobile web.
While Cyber Monday has traditionally been Black Friday’s online cousin, the deals began early this year both online and offline, and, according to the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark from IBM Smarter Marketing, Black Friday online sales were up 20.7pc year-on-year.
This cloud-based web analytics platform tracks more than 1m e-commerce transactions a day, and a close eye was kept on online sales throughout Thanksgiving in the US on 22 November and Black Friday the next day, with the infographic below looking at the latest trends as of 12am PST (8am GMT) on 24 November.
On average, online consumers spent US$181.22 on sales goods, most of which went on home goods, which were up by 28.2pc.
But the key statistic revealed by this year’s Black Friday shopping is the amount that is now driven by mobile commerce. Sales on mobile devices accounted for 16.3pc of all online sales during the period, and most of this traffic (58.6pc) was coming from smartphones.
Breaking it down, Apple users dominate the mobile shopping arena, accounting for the majority of sales over Android, Kindle, Nook, Samsung and other device users.
