Black Friday Billions: Online spending rivals traditional shop crush

Black Friday marked an interesting day for U.S. online shoppers -- reaching nearly $1.2 billion in purchases made from PCs alone.

According to research firm comScore, over $1.2 billion was spent by U.S. consumers online on the popular shopping day, becoming the first day this year to shoot past the billion dollar mark.

ComScore says that $1.198 billion was spent online during Black Friday, a rise of 15 percent year-on-year. In addition, Thanksgiving day sales hit the $766 million mark, a 21 percent increase. The research firm ranked Amazon as the top online retailer this year, and says that a record 66.1 million U.S. customers took to their gadgets to make a purchase within this holiday period.

In total, the firm says that $20.6 billion has been spent online so far in the November–December 2013 holiday season.

However, it is important to note that comScore has failed to include online sales made from mobile devices including smartphones and tablets. Considering the rising trend of mobile use, the true expenditure figures are likely to be higher.

ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said:

"While Black Friday -- and now Thanksgiving Day -- is the traditional kick-off to the brick-and-mortar holiday shopping season, both days continue to grow in importance on the online channel.
Clearly many consumers prefer to avoid the crowds and lines typically associated with Black Friday by shopping from the comfort of their own homes, and we saw a record 66 million Americans do that this year. Also interesting is that the recent trend of kick-starting holiday shopping by opening stores on Thanksgiving Day seems to be having a spillover effect on the online channel."

Via: comScore

Image credit: Flickr 

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com