NEW YORK CITY—Shoppers set out a plentiful table for both brick-and-mortar and online retailers over the Thanksgiving holidays, the traditional starting point for the end-of-year shopping season. The International Council of Shopping Centers reported that 105 million adults visited malls and shopping centers on Black Friday, and 75% of all shopping was captured by retailers with a physical presence—whether the shopping took place in-store or on the Web.
“Thanksgiving Weekend is a great indicator for what will be a holiday season full of spending, as we are seeing a very positive consumer sentiment and willingness to spend,” says Tom McGee, president and CEO of ICSC. “Shopping centers across the country should feel very optimistic about the season ahead. While the shopping season is longer this year, it's not coming at the expense of the most popular shopping day of the year.”
Yet while the National Retail Federation has projected a year-over-year increase of 3.6% to 4% in holiday shopping overall, the big gainer on a percentage basis was e-commerce. Adobe Data said late Monday night that Cyber Monday sales volume was expected to reach $6.59 billion, a new high water mark for online shopping and a 16.8% Y-O-Y increase. Adobe predicts this will be the first-ever holiday season to break $100 billion in online sales.
About 25% of that Cyber Monday sales volume stemmed from trsnactions conducted on smartphones. Adobe said smartphone traffic grew 22.2% Y-O-Y, while revenue coming from smartphones ($1.59 billion) saw 39.2% growth from the year-ago period, a new all-time high.
“Shopping and buying on smartphones is becoming the new norm and can be attributed to continued optimizations in the retail experience on mobile devices and platforms,” says Mickey Mericle, Adobe's VP of marketing and consumer insights. “Consumers are also becoming more savvy and efficient online shoppers. People increasingly know where to find the best deals and what they want to purchase, which results in less price matching behavior typically done on desktops. Millennials were likely another reason for the dramatic growth in mobile, with 75% expecting to shop via their smartphone.”
On the brick-and-mortar front, ICSC reported that 63% of shoppers surveyed planned to make a purchase over the holiday weekend. They planned to visit an average of six stores over the weekend, compared to four last year. Many holiday shoppers took advantage of omnichannel, with 25% making a purchase online Thanksgiving and/or Black Friday with plans to pick up the merchandise in-store, according to ICSC.
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Paul Bubny
Paul Bubny is managing editor of Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. He has been reporting on business since 1988 and on commercial real estate since 2007. He is based at ALM Real Estate Media Group's offices in New York City.
