Online Black Friday Sales Volume Expected to Increase: Infographic

RMN Digital | November 14, 2014 | Lifestyle, Masses | No Comments

An online Black Friday resource blackfriday.fm has released its Black Friday 2014 infographic as well as survey results.

Continuing the recent trend, it says, Black Friday seems to gradually be shifting into Black Thursday. 68% of the more than 10,000 survey respondents indicated that in 2013 they started their holiday shopping on Thanksgiving Day. In 2014, 69% of those same respondents plan on continuing the trend of post turkey shopping.

Given substantial popular backlash against store openings on Thanksgiving, some might expect a reduction in Thursday shopping but according to Rene Kirschbaum, blackfriday.fm’s deal expert, “The major retail success experienced by the big box Black Friday merchants in the last couple years virtually guarantees that we will continue to see Thanksgiving Day as the official launch of the holiday shopping season.”

As the economy continues to recover blackfriday.fm expects to see a bump in Black Friday spending. These expectations are supported by this year’s survey as a shocking 42% of those surveyed plan on spending more on Black Friday this year than they did in 2013 with another 45% planning on spending about the same amount.

According to the survey, online shopping continues to be a growing force on Black Friday. While only 56% of shoppers reported shopping online in 2013, a staggering 73% anticipate doing at least some of their shopping online this year.

Selected Survey Results:

15% of respondents have spent more than 5 hours waiting in line for a Black Friday sale.
76% of Black Friday shoppers will do their research online while only 1% will rely on TV ads.
93% will use their phone on Black Friday to compare prices.

According to Jacob Chapman, VP of Strategy for blackfriday.fm, “With our respondents both looking to spend more money this year than last and looking to do more of their shopping online, we expect a large increase in online Black Friday sales volume this year. We might even see sales increase as much as 20%.”