Black Friday Online Sales Hit $595M, Up 11% Last Year

The dust has settled after another Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and already statistics are suggesting they've both been very successful for retailers. However, it seems online sellers have benefitted the most this year, with Amazon.com and Wal-Mart leading the pack.

As the first nation-wide holiday within striking distance of the Christmas season, Black Friday has become renowned for big sales and big lineups at malls and big box retail stores (making it more or less infamous with consumers more prone to frustration). However, over the last few years more and more shoppers have been heading online in order to beat the retail outlet traffic.

Black Friday Online Sales Hit $595 Million

According to industry analysts ComScore Inc., the total online sales for Black Friday 2009 topped about $595 million, ranking second amongst all shopping days this year and putting it 11 per cent higher in total online sales compared to Black Friday 2008.

"Black Friday, better known as a shopping bonanza in brick-and-mortar retail stores, is increasingly becoming one of the landmark days in the online holiday shopping world," said ComScore's Gian Fulgoni, company chairman.

"While this acceleration in spending suggests the online holiday season may be shaping up slightly more optimistically than anticipated, it may also reflect the heavy discounting and creative promotions being put forth by retailers that now encompass the use of social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter," Fulgoni went on to say. (Source: computerworld.com)

Amazon.com, Walmart Nab Most Traffic

Taking the throne for total Black Friday traffic amongst individual retailers was, unsurprisingly perhaps, Amazon.com, which nabbed 13.55 per cent of all American visits to top 500 retail web sites. That's the second year in a row Amazon was targeted by the most consumers.

Retail goliath Wal-Mart also did well, placing second with 11.18 per cent of all U.S. visits. Rounding out the top five were Target (5.65 per cent), Best Buy (4.62 per cent) and Sears (2.95 per cent).

Meanwhile, most of these sites were again busy on Cyber Monday, the first of the week following Black Friday. By noon Pacific Time global traffic to retail sites had already hit 7.79 million visitors per minute, with North American traffic at 4.17 million each sixty-second interval. The former stat reveals that 16 per cent more people were surfing retail sites around the world than the same time last year. (Source: cnet.com)