Black Friday Sees Record Online Sales, With Deals Still Available
A lot of folks hopped online to take advantage of Black Friday sales. What's that? You spaced? No worries -- discounts will be out there for a while yet.
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Black Friday has come and gone, but don't fret if you spent the day sleeping off your Turkey Day feast rather than bagging the bargains. Saturday and Sunday will be big discount days and Cyber Monday will see even more sales, according to analysis from software company Adobe.
Over the weekend, clothing items and TVs will reach 17% off list price, toys will hit 33% off and sporting goods will reach 19% off, Adobe said Saturday. It expects Cyber Monday to see the best deals on computers, at 27% off list prices. Appliances, however, will hit 18% off on Thursday, Dec. 1. Cyber Monday is also expected to be a good time to buy furniture, with Adobe expecting those items to reach 11% off their listed prices.
The company's projections are based on analyzing consumer transactions online. Adobe's Experience Cloud is used by a number of major internet retailers for delivering, personalizing and measuring online shopping experiences.
Pay later, buy now
When it comes to this year's Black Friday, online sales hit a record of $9.12 billion, with buy now, pay later plans playing a significant role amid inflation. Adobe Analytics says it looked at a trillion visits to US retail sites, 18 product categories and 100 million stock-keeping units, the code assigned to each individual product sold. The Black Friday sales numbers were up 2.3% from last year, Adobe said, but it still expects Cyber Monday to be the year's biggest online shopping day, with projected sales of $11.2 billion, a rise of 5.1% over 2021 figures.
Big sellers on Black Friday included Funko Pop, Disney Encanto, Fortnite and Roblox toys, as well as Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles, and video games including FIFA 23, NBA 2K23, and Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, Adobe said. Drones and Apple MacBooks did well too.
All told, Adobe said it expects Cyber Week -- the five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday -- to see online spending of $34.8 billion, a 2.8% increase over last year. That'll add up to a 16.3% share of the complete November and December holiday shopping season.
Adobe pointed out that Nov. 26 is Small Business Saturday, with shoppers encouraged to give a little love to independent retailers. The rocky economy has been tough for smaller sellers, defined as those earning $10 million to $50 million in annual revenue. Their online sales have grown three times less than those of retailers with more than $1 billion in annual revenue. So don't forget to shop local.
Check out CNET's Cyber Week deals coverage, including bargains you can bag this weekend, and early Cyber Monday sales.