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All the hope and hype that went into Black Friday preparations this year didn't give us much. Year-over-year, retail sales grew only 0.5%, from $10.61 billion to $10.66 billion, according to ShopperTrak. This follows a 3% gain last year, when the world was gripped by the panic triggered by the global financial crisis. In 2007, the situation was much better, with Black Friday sales leaping 8.3%.
The slight gain this year came even with the extra efforts retailers made, which included, in some cases, opening on Thanksgiving Day and making an extra push via social media. These measures effectively helped retailers tread water.
Worries about the momentum from Black Friday fading through the holiday season are even tougher, now that we know there isn't much momentum on which to rely. Shopper traffic was heavy this year, according to ShopperTrak, which led to much of the early optimism. But, the lookers weren't converting at the rates retailers had hoped.
The action came online this year, even ahead of Cyber Monday. Internet shopping increased 35%, with the average order reaching $170.19, according to online retail analytics company Coremetrics.
Despite the difficult results last week, ShopperTrak is maintaining its holiday season growth estimate of 1.6%, with co-founder Bill Martin saying in a company statement that the forecast "remains intact."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-29-2009 @ 11:55AM
imperialXXX1029 said...
What I find ridiculous is how one minute on TV news they're reporting "retailers having a great Christmas Season thanks to Black Friday" then a few hours later "retailers in a slump! Black Friday sales down" - then switch channels: "Retailers won't know until Monday if Black Friday was boom or bust!"
Great post from you Tom, I linked to it from my blog:
http://dave-lucas.blogspot.com/2009/11/around-blogosphere-29-november-09.html
11-29-2009 @ 1:11PM
Raymond R. Murray said...
The retailers and wall street hype it up to hopefully inspire the consumers of america to spend money they don't have and to engage in practices such as credit card use which has been the downfall of the economy for so long. The corporations are showing that the only concern they have is the bottom line. Consumers should tighten up and live within their means despite all the hype.
11-29-2009 @ 3:03PM
Peter Van Schaik said...
One problem with everyone living within their means: If we live within our means we spend less. Unless we also stop importing so many of the goods we do buy, there will be even fewer of us with jobs than there are now. You can bash consumerism all you want but it did help keep our labor force employed. As long as we keep the dollars at home we can get by with less spending but if we send the few dollars we do spend overseas, that doesn't bode well for the future of our economy.