“The pandemic will leave us with a lot of new traditions but it’s not going to wipe away all of the prior,” he said. Siegel is among analysts who view 2020 as an outlier, anticipating that shoppers will return to stores once they feel it is safe to do so. While the results of this year have prompted some experts to portend the death of Black Friday, Mr.
“This is a trend we’re expected to see at this Covid Christmas,” Mr. While the number of shoppers visiting just about every store on Black Friday was down markedly from previous years, those who did venture out were not there to window-shop.Ĭraig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail research firm, said retailers experienced higher “conversion” rates, meaning more shoppers in the stores actually made purchases than in previous years. Matthew Bilunas, chief financial officer at Best Buy, said that “it’s really difficult to predict exactly how much was pulled into” the third quarter. Black Friday was already stretched into early November, it just happened to make it into October as well.”ĭuring earnings calls in November, several retail executives said they were uncertain about how much holiday shopping had actually been done in October and early November. “It’s been a long time since Black Friday was simply three hours in the morning on Friday. “The ability to pull the holiday forward may linger with us,” said Simeon Siegel, a retail analyst at BMO Capital Markets. New Drug’s Long Odds: A promising new treatment quashes all Covid variants, but regulatory hurdles and a lack of funding make it unlikely to reach the United States market anytime soon.Long Covid: A large study found that Covid patients were significantly more likely to experience gastrointestinal problems a year after infection than people who were not infected.Covid Testing: The Biden administration appears to be planning to end a requirement that travelers coming from China present a negative Covid-19 test before entering the United States.Covid’s Origins: A House subcommittee opened its first public hearing on the possible origins of the pandemic, including a lab leak theory that’s the subject of intense political and scientific debate.
The firm said online sales rose to $23.5 billion in the four-day Thanksgiving-to-Sunday period, up 23 percent from last year. Consumers spent $9 billion online on Friday, a 21.6 increase from last year and the second-biggest figure for online retailers ever, according to Adobe Analytics, which scans 80 percent of online transactions across the top 100 U.S. And many Americans did their shopping before the weekend even began, drawn by sales that began in October.Īnalysts at Morgan Stanley estimated that retailers’ overall Black Friday sales fell 20 percent from last year, based on early reports of drops in store foot traffic and increases in online sales. Major chains closed on Thanksgiving, after years of being open that day. Instead, most people bought online, if they bought at all.Ĭrowds at malls and city shopping districts were relatively sparse over the holiday weekend in the face of rising coronavirus cases and warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to avoid large groups.
The 2020 edition of Black Friday did not offer the usual scenes of bustling stores and shoppers lined up outside discount chains and electronics retailers.
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