Increasingly, consumers are opting to do Black Friday from the comfort of their their phones, tablets and PCs. Online sales for Black Friday were up 21.5% over last year, according to IBM.
Between Black Friday and Thanksgiving, online shoppers spent about $4.5 billion, with 60% – $2.72 billion– spent on Black Friday itself, according to Adobe.
As you might expect, ecommerce giant Amazon was a big winner. Traffic to Amazon grew nearly 21% for this year's Black Friday compared to 2014, according to ChannelAdvisor. And traffic to eBay grew 1.5% on Black Friday.
Price comparison tool Google Shopping was another huge winner, with traffic growth about 40% year over year, ChannelAdvisor says, while other online stores (which include sites like Best Buy, Sears, Rakuten.com, and Shopping.com, but excludes Amazon and eBay) claimed their fair share, collectively seeing a 77% increase in visitors.
More than half of shoppers — 57% — used their phones and tablets to browse ecommerce sites. And a large percentage, 35%, made the actual purchase on their phones or tablets, instead of switching to their PCs to do that, IBM says.
As to what people bought online: Electronics, electronics, electronics.
According to Adobe, the most popular Black Friday electronics were:
- Samsung 4K TVs
- Apple iPad Air 2
- Microsoft Xbox One
- Apple iPad Mini
- Sony PS4
Adobe says the five most popular toys were:
- Lego Dimensions
- Shopkin dolls
- Lego Star Wars
- Barbie Dream House
- Lego Friends
According to IBM, the most popular Black Friday products were:
- Samsung TVs
- Apple Watch
- Sony TVs
- Beats by Dre
- LG TVs
- Jordan Shoes
- Nintendo Super Smash Bros
- MeccaNoid Personal Robots (a robot kit that kids build themselves)
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