Sales stats

By Mansi Patel

Pushing, shoving, scampering and scrambling isn’t the first thing that comes into mind when thinking of Black Friday. Black Friday is known as the biggest shopping event of the year, with millions of people coming out to shop in stores or staying in the comfort of their homes and shopping online. Over the years, with a rising population in the US, there have also been more shoppers and an increase in sales in stores nationwide.

Throughout the years, shopping in stores has become less and less popular, and staying at home in the comfort of your bed and not having to wait in long lines has become more popular. According to CNNMoney, there was a two percent decrease in in-store traffic on both Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday compared to the previous year. This is probably due to how easy of an access shopping online has become for younger generations. According to the National Retail Federation, approximately 51.6 million people went to shop in stores, 58.4 million people shopped online and 64.6 million people shopped both online and in stores on Black Friday.

Over the last few years, more people are buying items ranging from jewelry to Instant Pot to Amazon Echo Dot. According to Adobe Systems Inc., online sales in 2017 rose by a shocking 18% that year alone, resulting in the total sales to be a whopping $7.9 billion between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. Adobe also claimed that mobiles accounted for about 47.4% of all online shopping traffic in the U.S. in 2017. That is approximately a 39% increase from the previous year. According to the National Retail Federation, they suspect that sales will increase another 4.1 percent this year. Overall, every year there has been an increase in sales on Black Friday except in 2008 due to the financial crisis.

Last year, according to Amazon, their top-selling items were the Amazon Echo Dot, the Fire TV Stick with Alexa voice remote, the TP-Link smart plug, the Instant Pot DUO80 8-quart seven-in-one multiuse programmable pressure cooker and the 23andMe DNA test.

Americans aren’t the only ones celebrating Black Friday and Cyber Monday. According to research for discount shopping site vouchercodes.co.uk carried out by the Centre for Retail Research, shoppers in the UK spent approximately £7.8 billion between Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2017. Right behind is Germany which spent £5.7 billion online and in-store, and France which spent £4.7 billion.

With Black Friday coming around the corner, sales are expected to increase, specifically those online. On Fri., Nov. 23, take this once-in-a-year opportunity to go out or stay at home and get some shopping done for the season!