Black Friday bargains start season off with a bang |
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11/28/2006 1:42:22 AM
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Washington¡ªThe holiday shopping season is off to a strong start, says surveys released this weekend, as consumers across the country clamored for Black Friday bargains on everything from clothing to electronics.
According to ShopperTrak RCT Corp.'s National Retail Sales Estimate, Black Friday sales totaled $8.96 billion, up 6 percent compared to 2005, due in large part to extended Black Friday discounts and a recent decline in energy costs that left consumers with more disposable income.
"Although we anticipated a solid consumer turnout for Black Friday, this data shows an even larger increase than expected as consumers proved they were willing to spend," ShopperTrak co-founder Bill Martin said in a statement. "Because Black Friday isn't the greatest bellwether for the season's performance, retailers need to remain cautious, but undoubtedly this type of a season opening is a nice shot in the arm for the industry."
The National Retail Federation's (NRF) 2006 Black Friday Weekend Survey, conducted by Big Research, also revealed solid holiday sales, with more than 140 million shoppers hitting the stores on Black Friday weekend, spending an average of $360.15, up 18.9 percent from last year's $302.81.
Clothing or clothing accessories were the most popular items purchased (41.4 percent) as well as books, CDs, DVDs, videos or video games (41.4 percent). Consumer electronics or computer-related accessories (33.3 percent) were also in high demand, as well as toys (28.3 percent), gift cards/gift certificates (17.6 percent) and home decor or home-related furnishings (17.4 percent).
Discounters were still the most popular shopping destination, but traffic dropped substantially from last year (49.6 percent versus 60.7 percent in 2005). Traditional department stores were also a popular destination (38.8 percent) as well as specialty retailers such as clothing and toy stores (37.5 percent).
One-fourth of consumers also took advantage of retailers' Web-only specials. Black Friday, known for being one of the year's busier offline shopping days, saw $434 million in online sales this year, according to ComScore Networks, jumping 42 percent compared to 2005.
"Consistent with news reports of heavy traffic to leading retailers' Web sites¡ªwhich in the case of Walmart.com resulted in an outage at the site¡ªComScore found high levels of online retail spending on Black Friday this year," ComScore Networks Chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement. "With 42 percent growth versus the same day last year, it's clear that many consumers opted for the convenience and sanity of shopping from home to avoid mayhem at that malls and to take advantage of the extremely attractive deals being offered online. This growth figure is especially encouraging for online retailers when taking into account that much of the country saw beautiful weather on Friday."
As of Sunday, the average person has completed 35.6 percent of their holiday shopping, according to the NRF, showing no change from last year. Only one in 12 consumers (8.6 percent) has finished their holiday shopping.
NRF continues to project that holiday sales will rise 5 percent this year to $457.4 billion.
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