Black Friday sales were up over last year, with online sales leading the way, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse. Overall sales on Black Friday were up 3.4%, according to the report, with online sales (which typically include orders placed online but picked up in stores) up 14.6% and brick-and-mortar sales up 0.7% over the same day last year.
For the full weekend, 197 million people shopped in stores or online, according to a study released by the National Retail Federation. That’s down slightly from the 200.4 million shoppers last year, but still the second-highest ever and ahead of the NRF’s expectations of 183.4 million shoppers.
Flipping the dollar sales trends, there were more in-store shoppers this year (126 million over the weekend, up from 121.4 million in 2023), and fewer online shoppers (124.3 million, down from 134.2 million last year).
Around 86% of shoppers purchased gifts, according to the NRF survey, spending an average of $235, up $8 over last year, or around 3.5%, matching the Mastercard number.
Early reports from game stores were positive (see “Rolling for Initiative – Black Friday 2024“).
Source: ICv2
