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Americans are turning to their mobile devices for deals to kick off the holiday shopping season, with retail trends increasingly upended by ever-present smartphones.
According to Adobe Digital Insights, the four-day Thanksgiving Day weekend that normally marks the start of the holiday season saw online sales of $36.5 billion, up seven percent from last year—more than a third of that coming from mobile devices.
The latest figures showed the diminishing importance of events such as "Black Friday," the blockbuster sales day following the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, and "Cyber Monday," a tradition dating back to days when consumers waited to use their office high-speed connections for online purchases.
Data released earlier by the National Retail Federation showed relatively flat total retail sales for Black Friday, noting that 44 percent shopped online, compared to 40 percent who went in stores.
Plenty of bargain-hunters took a break from Thanksgiving festivities on Thursday to shop—with online sales totaling $1.93 billion, and 40 percent of the total on tablets or smartphones ($771 million), according to Adobe.
Now you know why the family members around the Thanksgiving table wouldn't put their phones down and talk to each other.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Monday December 05 2016, @11:47AM
Is there any evidence the prices are actually better?
I get so many "black friday, black friday, cyber monday, cyber tuesday because we like you! yes just you!!".
In essence, the entire advertising industry can be summed up by a giant poster saying:
"Buy our stuff. NOW!"
Unless you have Amazon's software in which it will read:
"You just bought $OBJECT. Would you like another $OBJECT?"
I suppose, at least Talkie Toaster got a job...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday December 05 2016, @12:37PM
Uhhhh - anecdotal evidence?
Before the internet, I was often real sure that I was paying a premium price for something or other. But, I couldn't check it without driving to another town to see what the prices were there. Time, gas prices, and more prevented me from really shopping. Time more than anything - there were times when I had to have something, so I bought it at the little hardware store 3 miles from my house. (call that poor planning, in most cases) Old man Dick Click often drove to Wal-Mart, bought hardware, brought it back to his store, and put his marked up price sticker right on top of Wal-Mart's sticker. You could peel it off to see his markup. There is simply no telling how many other stores did that.
With or without the internet, if you have to have something RIGHT NOW, you'll pay whatever the premium price happens to be. But, everyone knows when Christmas is. Most people start planning at least month in advance. You can get online, whether mobile or desktop, and actually SHOP.
Yes, I believe that prices are being driven down by all our online devices, whether they be smart phones, or my desktop, or whatever. I've seen no evidence to the contrary.
If Old Man Click were still alive, he would still be doing the same thing, but his big fat markup on top of Wal-Mart prices would probably amount to a very small reduction in price from 1999. After all, Wally World buys most of it's junk really cheap from China these days.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Monday December 05 2016, @03:55PM
I'd say marginally but not worth the hassle. I did the whole stand in line for hours thing when i was younger and if time has no value then the deals are worth it. Not everyone enjoys standing in the cold and dark for hours. Cyber money seems like a scam on the big sites. The sales are nothing special. But smaller websites do have great deals (usually on discontinued or less popular items though).
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