Black Friday is no longer a one-day event, as retailers push the boundaries on just how early they begin discounting their merchandise. Walmart began offering holiday deals almost a week before Halloween this year, although it didn’t actually call them Black Friday sales, but rather Early Drop Deals.
Businesses are also opening their doors on Thanksgiving Day and making their Black Friday sales available online just about the time people are finishing their turkey. This has spread out the impact of Black Friday across several days. In fact, the unofficial start to holiday shopping now encompasses the five-day period between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday.
According to Adobe Analytics, while Black Friday online sales surged almost 24% to hit $6.22 billion in the US last year, Cyber Monday sales jumped 19% to reach a record $7.8 billion: easily surpassing Black Friday’s tally.
That doesn’t mean brick-and-mortar retailers don’t matter. The National Retail Federation (NRF) forecasts that consumers will spend anywhere from $728 billion to $731 billion on holiday shopping this year, a 4% increase from 2018. But e-commerce sales will capture only $167 billion of that at most, or about 23%. That’s a significant amount to be sure, but it pales in comparison to the amount consumers will spend at physical stores.
So there are clues we can use to figure out which retailer might win this Black Friday… The Motley Fool
