Thanksgiving Weekend Sees 44% More Online-Only Shoppers, Independent Business on Amazon Surpass $4.8 Billion
Forty-four percent more consumers shopped online only over Thanksgiving weekend this year compared to last year, according to an annual survey released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics. Additionally, from Black Friday through Cyber Monday across Amazon stores worldwide, independent businesses—nearly all of which are small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) — surpassed $4.8 billion in worldwide sales, an increase of over 60% from last year, according to the retailer.
Black Friday and Saturday saw tremendous growth in online activity, NRF said. For the first time, the number of online Black Friday shoppers passed the 100 million mark, up 8% over last year. The number of online Saturday shoppers grew even more, up 17% compared with last year. Online-only shoppers increased by 44% for the entire weekend, for a total of $95.7 million.
As expected, in-store shopping was down given both the state of the pandemic as well as the number of retailers who opted to close on Thanksgiving Day. With consumer traffic moving to online channels, the number of in-store shoppers on Thanksgiving Day dropped by 55% from last year and those on Black Friday dropped by 37%.
Over the five-day period, shoppers spent an average of $311.75 on holiday-related purchases such as gifts or decorations, down from last year’s total of $361.90 but comparable to 2018’s $313.29. Of that amount, nearly three-quarters ($224.48) was spent directly on gifts.
“As expected, consumers have embraced an earlier start to the holiday shopping season, but many were also prepared to embrace a long-standing tradition of turning out online and in stores over Thanksgiving weekend to make gift purchases for family and friends,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay.
Amazon, which kicked off the holiday season earlier than ever, just after Prime Day with deals starting in October, said that, through Cyber Monday, 2020 has been the largest holiday shopping season so far in the company’s history.
“In a holiday season unlike any other, it’s clear that customers still want great deals on gifts for their loved ones or a little something extra for themselves, and we’re glad to help deliver smiles throughout the season,” said Jeff Wilke, CEO, Amazon Worldwide Consumer. “Thank you to our customers, employees, and selling partners around the world for making this our biggest holiday season to date, and for everything you’re doing to support our communities and each other now and throughout the year.”
More than 71,000 SMBs worldwide have surpassed $100,000 in sales this holiday season to date, Amazon said. American SMBs have sold an average of 9,500 products per minute this holiday season to date.