Black Friday, By The Numbers
Written by Fred J. AunDecember 1st, 2009
Although major retailers certainly saw more than their fair share of unexpected technical hiccups on Black Friday (Nov. 27), the online traffic side of the E-Commerce world saw very few surprises. Longtime industry leaders Amazon, Walmart and Target grabbed the top three slots in pages visited. All three also saw significantly more site visits this year than on Black Friday 2008, said Internet monitoring firm Hitwise. Coming in fourth through sixth on the list were—in order—Best Buy, Sears and JC Penney, but the year-over-year traffic changes at those sites was less impressive.
Making these figures all the more interesting is that they happened on the much ballyhooed Black Friday and not the National Retail Federation-created Cyber Monday, which is supposed to be the grand day of E-Commerce. Not that it ever was the highest E-Commerce day, but it has typically made a bit of online noise. This year, though, beyond a handful of small tech glitches, Cyber Monday was hardly noticeable. I think About Retail put it best when it opened its story with this lovely poem: Twas the night before Cyber Monday and all through the 'net, hardly a new special was posted - did the e-tailers forget.
This Story Is Only Available For Premium Subscribers. Click Or Login In Below To Read The Rest Of This Story.
Already a Subscriber? Login Here
Pages: 1 2
One Comment | Read Black Friday, By The Numbers
Leave a Reply
Readers, specifically those who want to comment on a story:
Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
-Ed
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:42 am
Wow, I’m not sure if this story is good or bad news. Looks like online retail will be the shining star this holiday season as the numbers at the physical store aren’t so full of good cheer. This story also confirms what we already know, Amazon is a key player in online shopping and they set the standard for customer experience. I beleive that this seasons results will change the way Black Friday is deployed next year. All that work for a zero margin day does not make for successful retailing.