Analyzing Thanksgiving, Black Friday Sales

Analysts at RetailNext (San Jose, Cali.) have analyzed data from this year’s Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping and report that net sales for the two-day period were down 1.5 percent year-over-year. The average transaction value, however, was up 1.1 percent.

Part of this decline is attributed to when Thanksgiving fell this year, which caused there to be about 20 million fewer paychecks available to workers than the year before.

In spite of decreased traffic in-stores, many retailers saw increases in online sales. HookLogic (New York) reported that e-commerce traffic was twice as high on Thanksgiving Day as it was the week before, peaking at 9 p.m.

Mobile activity also grew this year, accounting for 65 percent of all shopping activity on Thanksgiving and 59 percent on Black Friday, according to Women’s Wear Daily.