US ‘Black Friday’ online sales hit record $9bn despite high inflation

NurPhoto/Beata Zawrzel

US shoppers spent a record $9.12 billion online this Black Friday, a report showed on Saturday, as consumers weathered the squeeze from high inflation and grabbed steep discounts on everything from smartphones to toys.

Online spending rose 2.3 percent on Black Friday, Adobe Inc’s data and insights arm Adobe Analytics said, thanks to consumers holding out for discounts until the traditionally big shopping days, despite deals starting as early as October.

Adobe Analytics, which measures e-commerce by analysing transactions at websites, has access to data covering purchases at 85 percent of the top 100 internet retailers in the United States.

It had forecast Black Friday sales to rise a modest one percent.

Adobe expects Cyber Monday to be the season’s biggest online shopping day again, driving $11.2 billion in spend.

Consumers were expected to flock to stores after the pandemic put a dampener on in-store shopping over the past two years, but Black Friday morning saw stores draw less traffic than usual with sporadic rain in some parts of the country.

Americans turned to smartphones to make their holiday purchases, with data from Adobe showing mobile shopping represented 48 percent of all Black Friday digital sales.