Mobile spending 'more important than ever' for Black Friday 2018

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Oct 2, 2018

As the Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales approach, consumers are more likely than ever to shop for deals on mobile devices as online spending is predicted to increase across the board.

According to Best Black Friday’s predictions for the Thanksgiving weekend sales that start as early as the day before Thanksgiving and continue until Cyber Monday, this year should see consumers spend more than the last, especially on mobile devices.

The website predicted that online sales should reach around $5.8 billion on Black Friday, up 15.31 percent from $5.03 billion in 2017. Thanksgiving Day sales are also expected to reach $3.35 billion, up 16.72 percent from $2.87 billion in 2017.

Purchases from mobile devices are expected to total around $2.44 billion Black Friday up from $2.11 billion in 2017 and $1.51 billion on Thanksgiving up from $1.32 billion in 2017, according to data collated by the site from Adobe, Salesforce, and Commerce Cloud. Although laptops and desktop computers may make purchasing online easier to navigate, mobile devices are portable and allow shoppers to browse sales anytime, anywhere. A brand’s mobile device sales will therefore continue to be more and more important this sale season and in the foreseeable future.

A number of stores have stated that they will remain closed on Thanksgiving itself, maintaining a trend for sales to start only on Black Friday itself. Retailers that have done so for the past few years include H&M, Nordstrom, and Patagonia. In a US consumer survey by Best Black Friday, 24.67 percent favoured Thanksgiving openings but 47.66 percent stated that they do not, 28.99 percent of them 'strongly disliking' Thanksgiving openings. Many brands are citing the desire to let employees spend time with their families as the reason they will remain closed.

Best Black Friday has predicted that the top three stores this holiday sale season will be Walmart, Amazon, and Target. New spending records are expected to be set and, according to the site, “mobile shopping will be more important than ever.”