Report: Black Friday online sales up 23%

A new report from Adobe Analytics indicates that online sales on Black Friday jumped 23.6% compared to a year ago.

Adobe Analytics, which tracks 80 of the top 100 internet retailers in the U.S., said that Black Friday 2018 (Nov. 23) broke records with $6.22 billion in online sales. This marked the first Black Friday holiday in history where more than $2 billion was purchased from smart phones, the company said.

Cyber Monday (Nov. 26) sales online are expected to set a new record of $7.8 billion, up nearly 18% from last year, according to the analytics monitor.

Earlier in November, Adobe predicted that U.S. online sales during the overall holiday period this year would increase 14.8% to $124.1 billion. It said offline retail spending is expected to increase a modest 2.7%.

Black Friday is described as the day after Thanksgiving when retailers give discounts to lure holiday shoppers into stores, and now, online to spend on gifts and items.

While the marketing aspects of Black Friday gained traction in the 1980’s, it wasn’t until the early 2000’s that Black Friday overtook the Friday before Christmas as the biggest shopping day of the year.