Black Friday spending hits $10.8B, keeping up the holiday season's record-setting pace

Shopping cart filled with christmas gifts — J Studios

American consumers continue to turn out in droves to shop, as evinced by record spending numbers on Black Friday to back up a similar performance on Thanksgiving, Adobe Analytics said on Saturday.

Spending reached a record $10.8B on Black Friday, according to Adobe’s data, marking a Y/Y rise of 10.2%. That came after a total spend of $6.1B on Thanksgiving. Buyers also showed a growing preference for flexible payment options, including buy now, pay later (BNPL) methods.

A total of $107.3B has been spent by Americans so far this holiday season starting from November 1, of which mobile spending has accounted for 52.8% and BNPL spending 7.1%. Mobile revenue share is eventually expected to hit a record 53.2% of online shopping in the season, while BNPL spending is seen peaking on Cyber Monday with a new single-day all-time high of $993M.

“Online retail spending is expected to hit new highs this holiday season. Adobe forecasts consumers will spend a record $241B online during the 2024 holidays, up 8.4% from 2023,” Adobe Analytics said on Saturday.

See the chart below provided by Adobe:

The holiday season’s performance is in the spotlight after the state of the U.S. economy was widely cited as one of the top concerns among voters during the election. Easing interest rates and inflation, the possibility of future trade tariffs, a heavy dose of holiday spirits and major discounting campaigns by retailers have contributed to this year’s record-breaking showing.

“Adobe expects seasonal sales events to trend earlier this year with widespread discounting expected to take place throughout October and November and peak discounts to emerge earlier in the ‘Cyber 5’ period between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday with the deepest price-cuts across several categories predicted to fall on Thanksgiving Day,” Adobe Analytics said.

See the chart below:

In terms of hot products this holiday season, Adobe expects items such as Bluey Ultimate Lights and Sounds Playhouse, Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and Bluetooth headphones “to fly off the shelves.”

Some of the biggest U.S. retailers include: Amazon (AMZN), Walmart (WMT), Costco (COST), Kroger (KR), Home Depot (HD), Target (TGT).

Here are some retail and e-commerce linked exchange-traded funds of interest: (XRT), (RTH), (IBUY), (ONLN), (EBIZ), (RETL), and (EMTY).

Black Friday spending hits $10.8B, keeping up the holiday season’s record-setting pace

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