Thanksgiving Day clocks $5.6 bn online sales in US, smartphones lead

San Francisco, Nov 25: Online sales touched $5.6 billion on Thanksgiving Day in the US, an increase of 5.5 per cent from last year.

According to Adobe Analytics, nearly $3.3 billion was spent over mobile devices on Thanksgiving, up 14 per cent and an all-time record.

Black Friday was likely to see $9.6 billion in online sales, up 5.7 per cent compared to last year, reports TechCrunch.

“Cyber Week is off to a strong start with Thanksgiving driving a record $5.6 billion in online spend as consumers took advantage of strong discounts and continued their shopping plans, virtually,” Vivek Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights, was quoted as saying.

“Mobile shopping hit an all-time high, as shoppers took to their smartphones to get the best deals during holiday gatherings, further solidifying mobile’s growing importance in e-commerce,” he added.

Adobe is predicting $37.2 billion in online spend for the full five days starting from Thanksgiving Day (which was on Thursday) including Black Friday -- up 5.4 per cent year-on-year and accounting for 16.8 per cent of all holiday spend.

Salesforce said that globally, online sales reached $31.7 billion with its US tally at $7.5 billion, both up only 1 per cent. Mobile accounted for 79 per cent of all online traffic globally and 82 per cent in the US.

“Mobile traffic and sales are soaring as people are on the go once again this holiday weekend,” said Salesforce VP and GM, Retail, Rob Garf.