Coverage: Consumers spent less during Black Friday weekend

The Thanksgiving shopping weekend is now behind us, and consumers spent billions, but the average shopper spent less than he or she did in 2015.

Anne D’Innocenzio of the Associated Press has the news:

Once all the receipts are in, customers look to have spent an average of $289.19 over the four-day weekend, down nearly 3.5 percent from a year ago, based on a survey by the National Retail Federation. The pressure on prices was especially strong on products like TVs.

More than 154 million customers said they had shopped or planned to this Thanksgiving weekend, up from 151 million a year ago, according to the survey conducted Friday and Saturday by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. And more were doing it online, as about 99.1 million went to the stores and 108.5 million shopped online.

Carmen Cunnyngham of Kansas City, Kansas, was in Denver on Sunday and decided to stop at the mall to pick up a new pair of Ugg boots for her daughter. They were discounted at Nordstrom, which is one of her favorite places to shop. She said she got a bit of a late start this year because of the presidential election, so she’s been looking online for deals and jumping when she sees them.

“I’m trying to make sure I get the wish lists in and look at those and shop and do what I can before Christmas gets here,” she said.

Nandita Bose of Reuters reports that online sales were much higher:

Apparel, accessories, toys, electronics, books, video games and gift cards were popular items bought over the weekend, Prosper Principal Analyst Pam Goodfellow said.

Craig Johnson, president of retail consultancy Consumer Growth Partners, projected that store sales grew by less than 1 percent whereas online sales rose 14 percent from last year.

Separate research released on Saturday by Adobe Digital Insights showed Thanksgiving and Black Friday online sales were $5.27 billion, up 18 percent from a year earlier and higher than its estimate of $5.05 billion.

Eight of the top 10 e-commerce sites in terms of traffic over the weekend belonged to those who had brick-and-mortar stores, the NRF said.

RetailNext, another analytics firm, on Saturday said net sales at brick-and-mortar stores fell 5.0 percent over Thursday and Friday, while the number of transactions fell 7.9 percent.

Maria Halkias of the Dallas Morning News reports that Cyber Monday sales should surpass Black Friday:

Even though Black Friday broke an online record, shoppers will be enticed back for more spending Monday.

“We still expect Cyber Monday to surpass Black Friday and become the largest online sales day in history with $3.36 billion,” said Tamara Gaffney, Adobe analyst and director.

In the federation’s shopper survey, more than a third of respondents (36 percent) said that 100 percent of what they bought over the weekend was on sale. That compares with 11 percent who said they only purchased discounted merchandise last year.

“Since the recession, people are much more deliberate about how they shop,” Shay said.

Retailers still talk about the recession. Holiday sales fell 4.6 percent in 2008 and were flat in 2009, and it took more than a couple of years for some stores to get back to pre-recession revenue.