Black Friday in stores sales

Despite early introduction of Black Friday ads, in-store product sales on both Thanksgiving and Ebony Friday plummeted in comparison to final year’s numbers. Based on product sales quotes from retail analytics provider Shoppertrak, Black Friday offline sales dropped from $11.6 billion in 2014 to $10.4 billion in 2015, while Thanksgiving product sales had been down from somewhat over $2 billion in 2014 to $1.8 billion in 2015.

Some experts attribute the shift to an increase in rise in popularity of internet based vacation shopping while the trend of stores supplying pre-Black Friday sales in the weeks leading up to the event — an effort to elongate the heightened sales that surround getaway shopping season.

Initial numbers in addition indicate a reduction in in-store foot traffic on both dates, further giving support to the perceived move in shopping practices. Shoppertrak’s main revenue officer Kevin Kearns credits this decrease to consumers just going to stores for which they’ve in the pipeline away and researched purchases before arrival.