US Black Friday Online Sales Decline for the First Time Ever

[Photo by Xinhua News Agency]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] For the first time ever, online sales during the United States' biggest shopping season, 'Black Friday,' declined compared to the previous year. This is analyzed to be due to the discount season starting earlier than usual.

Online retail analytics firm Adobe Analytics reported on the 27th (local time) that on Black Friday this year, the 26th, Americans spent a total of $8.9 billion (approximately 10.6 trillion KRW) on online shopping. Last year's Black Friday online sales were $9 billion.

Adobe stated that this is the first time the total online shopping amount on Black Friday has decreased compared to the previous year.

Online shopping on Thanksgiving Day (the 25th), one day prior, was $5.1 billion, almost the same level as the same day last year.

Regarding the disappointing results over the two days, Adobe interpreted it as "a sign that consumers started their year-end shopping earlier this year."

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Americans' dependence on online shopping has increased, leading some major retailers to begin discount sales from October. Especially this year, due to global supply chain disruptions and logistics crises, consumers fearing stockouts or delivery delays appear to have started shopping earlier.

Adobe expects that 'Cyber Monday' (the 29th), which surpasses Black Friday as the day with the highest online shopping volume throughout the year, will generate online sales between $10.2 billion and $11.3 billion.

Additionally, CNBC reported that although the number of offline shoppers increased on Black Friday this year compared to last year, which was severely impacted by COVID-19, it still showed a significant decrease compared to the pre-pandemic period.

According to Sensormatic Solutions' data, the number of visitors to offline retail stores in the U.S. on the 26th increased by 47.5% compared to a year ago but decreased by 28.3% compared to 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak.

On Thanksgiving Day, many large retailers such as Walmart and Best Buy closed their stores again this year, causing offline shoppers to plummet by 90.4% compared to two years ago.