E-commerce is transforming Black Friday

Long hours of waiting in the queues for the bargain deals in Black Friday weekend is becoming a thing in the past, according to this FT article. Early indications show that online sales in Thanksgiving increased by more than 25% to $1.73billion in 2015, according to an Adobe Digital Index research which tracked an online traffic of 180 million visits through the day. Mobile sales increased from 29% to 37%, showing yet again that m-commerce is now a prominent channel by itself. Black Friday sales also saw an increase of 14% in online sales, reaching $2.74 billion. The shift to e-commerce and m-commerce is definitely a threat for traditional brick-and-mortar stores, which are continuing to invest on omnichannel capabilities in order to address consumers with a more integrated value proposition. Multichannel efforts seems to be paying off for retailers; according to Walmart’s Chief Merchandising Officer, Steve Bratspies, “more than 25 million customers accessed store maps and promotions through Walmart’s online and mobile tools for Black Friday.”