Beware of Early Black Friday, Thanksgiving Weekend and Cyber Monday Numbers
What can we at Multichannel Merchant tell from the early Black Friday, Thanksgiving Weekend and Cyber Monday sales figures that have come across our desks?
Not a lot, really. But we can draw to a conclusion that marketers don’t want us to report: 100% of surveys completed, were taken by people who were surveyed. Some “results” that have been reported to us are like the Chewbacca Defense. And others? Yes, some of them do make sense.
Take digital media measurement firm ComScore, since it’s reporting some real, solid figures. It’s telling us that U.S. retail online sales on Black Friday were up 9%, at $648 million, and up 28% on Thanksgiving Day to $407 million. It’s also telling us that Amazon.com’s ecommerce sites saw a 25% increase in unique visitors, and Target’s unique visitors were up 9%.
And the National Retail Federation/BIGresearch poll estimates 212 million people shopped either in a store on online this Black Friday weekend, up from 195 million in 2009. The average shopper also spent $22 more than it did last year, and the NRF says U.S. retail sales topped $45 billion.
But the NRF says before merchants pop open the champagne and celebrate a happy holiday season, a solid Black Friday weekend does not always equal a year-over-year lift in holiday sales:
“While Black Friday weekend is not always an indicator of holiday season performance, retailers should be encouraged that a focus on value and discretionary gifts has shoppers in the spirit to spend,” said Matthew Shay, NRF President and CEO. “As retailers look ahead to the first few weeks of December, it will be important for them to keep momentum going with savings and incentives that holiday shoppers simply can’t pass up.”
As for Cyber Monday, comparison shopping engine engine Buy.com says it had its busiest day ever. And Dreams Inc., which owns the FansEdge.com sports apparel and memorabilia website, says it received a record $2.5 million in Cyber Monday orders.
One set of Cyber Monday results we were on the fence about yesterday was from software provider ChannelAdvisor, basically because the pre-release they sent indicated it would be a mash-up of how its clients did vs. straight-up results by merchant.
So they surprised us with this bit of insight from eBags.com:
“With the tentative state of the economy this year, we were cautiously optimistic going into this holiday season,” said Peter Cobb, senior vice president at eBags. “However, our Thanksgiving Day sales grew 57% , our Black Friday sales achieved a record 76% increase and our Cyber Monday sales were up 51%, an all-time sales record. Add to this our 100% increase in sales on Amazon over the past five days and the holiday outlook brightens considerably.”
Sometimes it’s tough to tell how significant an increase 57% or 76% is without dollar figures, but we know from looking at its top-secret MCM Awards entry form that they make a pretty penny year after year.
We’ll all have a clearer picture on Thursday though, since public-traded merchants will release their November sales figures… we hope.
