Black Friday Sales and Mobile Devices

It has been almost two weeks of non-stop Black Friday Sales advertising on all media platforms.  From television and radio, to social media and all online websites, companies made sure this year, Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping would be a success.  As for the way in which consumers would purchase these discounted items, 2014 has been the year of the mobile devices, according to multiple sources.

Back in 2010, less than 10 percent of all Black Friday shopping traffic came from mobile devices, according to The New York Times.  Fast forward four years, 2014 Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales jumped over 25 percent with consumers skipping the Black Friday madness in brick and mortar stores, and getting their holiday shopping started through their mobile devices.

Adobe’s 2014 Digital Online Shopping data study shows that 29 percent of sales made by consumers on Thanksgiving Day happened on smartphones or tablets, while 27 percent of Black Friday purchases were made through mobile devices. These numbers are up an average of 23 percent from the past year alone.  This study is based on “theanalysis of aggregated and anonymous data of more than 350 million visits to4,500 retail websites” according to the Business Wire webpage.

Social media platforms also had to do with these online purchases during 2014’s Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales.  Social media driven orders came from online platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.  This includes social media advertisement and links to companies’ webpages.  Facebook’s average order value was $114.45, while Pinterest’s was $93.20, and Twitter had a $90.74 average total sale value.  Social media driven orders totaled in $74.6 million during Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales in 2014.

All of these figures add up to the astounding $32 billionthat have been spent online in the days between November 1 and November 28, 2014, a total of 14 percent more than the same date in 2013. With an average online discount of 25.2 percent, consumers got to skip the long lines and crowds of eager and angry shoppers while still taking advantage of these early holiday season sales.  Now, with all these sales done through online websites and mobile devices, how will Cyber Monday’s figures stack up compared to Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales this year?