Stock Market Watch

Online Sales Rise 24.3% on Black Friday

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Online sales on Black Friday rise sharply this year, driven by increased use of mobile devices. Although Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) and other e-commerce companies posting strong performances, the industry’s growth rate lagged last year’s rise in online buying.

According to data from IBM Benchmark, online sales rose 24.3% on Black Friday. IBM Benchmark, which tracks transactions on websites of 500 retailers, was expecting growth of around 15% this year.


John Squire, Chief Strategy Officer at IBM Smarter Commerce, said that some of the best performing retailers did a good job of informing consumers about online promotions leading up to the crucial Black Friday.

Mercent, which assists retailers in selling their products through e-commerce channels such as Amazon and eBay, reported a 23% increase in Black Friday same-store sales by its clients. According to Mercent CEO Eric Best, e-commerce continues to grow on an absolute basis and take additional market share from bricks and mortar retailers. Strong Black Friday online sales indicate that Cyber Monday will see a sharp rise in sales this year. Best expects Cyber Monday to be huge this year. However, Best cautioned that strong Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales do not mean the entire holiday season will be strong.

According to ComScore, in 2010, shoppers spent more than $1 billion on Cyber Monday, which is the first day of work after Thanksgiving.

Mercent CEO Best said that holiday shopping is becoming more front-loaded around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. He said that all of this is great news but it is still early in the 45-day shopping season.

ChannelAdvisor, which assists merchants sell their products on e-commerce websites, said that Amazon registered some of the strongest growth this year. ChannelAdvisor’s clients saw a 49.8% rise in same-store sales through Amazon on Black Friday.

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edliston
Post Written By: Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.


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Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing.

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