- Patricia Edwards, chief investment officer for Bellevue
U.S. retail sales are likely to gain 13% in in Thanksgiving weekend sales, as consumers over the country, especially younger people, added shopping to their Thanksgiving Day plans, while online traffic soared throughout the weekend. Holiday shoppers spent an estimated $59.1 billion during the four-day weekend, 13% more than in the previous year. During the Thanksgiving Day the number of shoppers rocketed to more than 35 million, compared to 29 million last year; while average spending jumped to $423 this weekend, up from 6.3% from last year.
"What was Cyber Monday is now Cyber Weekend," said Poonam Goyal, a Bloomberg Industries analyst. " Year over year, Black Friday sales were strong and margins should have also been strong."
"Retailers are going to have to get creative, such as price discounts or special events, to keep the customer engaged," said Patricia Edwards, chief investment officer for Bellevue.
"With Black Friday online sales up 26 percent and surpassing $1 billion for the first time, coupled with early reports indicating that Black Friday sales in retail stores were down 1.8 percent, we can now confidently call it a multichannel marketing phenomenon," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.
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