Black Friday Sales Report 2013

Walmart, the world's largest retailer said had expected 2013 year's sales to top the previous year, when 22 million customers were served on Thanksgiving Day.  From 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., Walmart processed more than 10 million register transactions in its stores, the chain reported.  To help control crowds, Walmart handed out 1 million wristbands for popular products, allowing people to shop while they waited for deals.  On November 29^th, 2013 Walmart announced record-breaking Black Friday results. Millions of customers, once again, took advantage of the retailer's deals that began on Thanksgiving Day and last throughout the weekend.  More than 5 million customers took advantage of Walmart's One-Hour Guarantee which was expanded from three items last year to 21 items this year.  Walmart.com processed nearly 400 million page views on Thanksgiving Day, including customers who used mobile devices and tablets.  Although Apparel Search would like to report that clothing & fashion accessories led the sales growth, other items lead the charge.  From coast to coast, on Black Friday 2013 the top sellers at Walmart – in stores and online – were big screen televisions, the iPad mini, laptops, XBOX ONE, PS4 and Call of Duty Ghosts.  Hopefully in 2014 clothes or shoes will take center stage.

Interesting how not all reports tell the same story.  Here are some of the leading reports for your review:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/marketing-solutions/benchmark-reports/black-friday-2013.html

IBM Report:  Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday wrapped up with record online retail sales supported by strong growth in mobile use by consumers. Read the full report to get details on the latest trends from the holiday shopping season.   Online Sales Set New Record: Thanksgiving Day online sales grew by 19.7 percent year-over-year followed by Black Friday, with sales increasing 19 percent over 2012. Average order value for Black Friday was $135.27, up 2.2 percent year-over-year.  Mobile traffic grew to 39.7 percent of all online traffic, increasing by 34 percent over Black Friday 2012.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-02/black-friday-weekend-spending-drop-pressures-u-s-stores.html

Bloomberg Report: The first spending decline on a Black Friday weekend since 2009 reinforced projections for a lackluster holiday, increasing chances retailers will extend the deep discounts already hurting their profit margins.  Purchases at stores and websites fell 2.9 percent to $57.4 billion during the four days beginning with the Nov. 28 Thanksgiving holiday, according to a survey commissioned by the National Retail Federation. While 141 million people shopped, about 2 million more than last year, the average consumer's spending dropped 3.9 percent to $407.02, the survey showed.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/30/news/economy/black-friday-sales-results/

CNN Money Report: Thanksgiving is making Black Friday a little less crazy, and your tablet and smartphone are becoming checkout counters.  Overall brick-and-mortar store sales for Thursday and Friday rose 2.3% from last year, to $12.3 billion, according to a report released Saturday by ShopperTrak, a retail industry research firm. But the earlier opening of stores on Thanksgiving cut into sales on Black Friday itself, which were down 13.2% from 2012.

https://www.comscore.com/insights/press-Releases/2013/12/black-Friday-Billions-12-Billion-in-Desktop-ECommerce-Spending-Marks-First-BillionDollar-Online-Shopping-Day-of-the-2013-Holiday-Season

Comscore Report: Black Friday 2013 (November 29) saw $1.198 billion in desktop online sales, making it the season's first billion dollar day and heaviest online spending day to date, while representing a 15-percent increase versus Black Friday 2012. Thanksgiving Day (November 28), while traditionally a lighter day for online holiday spending, achieved a strong 21-percent increase over Thanksgiving Day last year to $766 million.

http://retailindustry.about.com/od/statisticsresearch/a/2013-Thanksgiving-Black-Friday-And-Cyber-Monday-Retail-Sales-Results-Summary.htm

About.com Report: compilation of various holiday reports.  A few of the highlights they list includes the following:

• Online sales increased 19.7% on Thanksgiving Day, November 29th, compared to Thanksgiving Day, 2012, according to IBM Benchmark report.
• 20% more people shopped after Thanksgiving dinner in 2013 than 2012, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF) survey.
• 25% of Thanksgiving Day shoppers say they arrived at a physical retail store by 8:00 PM and 37.3% of Thanksgiving Day shoppers said they arrived at a store before midnight, which was an increase from Thanksgiving Day 2013, according to the NRF survey.
• According to NRF estimates based on its consumer survey, more than 92 million people did retail shopping on Thanksgiving Day 2013, an increase over the 89 million it estimated from survey results in 2012.