Black Fridays Blue Skies

Image source:

What's going on?

Black Friday set a new record for online sales in the US and, as shopping continues to shift to the internet, frenzied crowds of bargain-hunters have quickly become history.

What does this mean?

Online sales in the US on Black Friday and Thanksgiving jumped about 18% versus a year ago (tweet this). Later on Tuesday well know the figure for sales in physical stores, but anecdotal reports and estimates of footfall point to fewer shoppers physically grappling over televisions. It was still good news for US retailers: estimates suggest that overall sales will be higher than in recent years. Meanwhile, in the UK, Black Friday spending rose by about 7% (also with a decline of in-store shoppers) showing that Brits are keenly adopting the traditionally American shopping extravaganza.

Why should I care?

For markets: Stock prices of most retailers have bounced nicely in recent days.

Signs have emerged recently that brick-and-mortar retailers have done a better job managing their inventory heading into the crucial holiday shopping season than they have in recent years. This means fewer desperate reductions in price and better-targeted discounts which improves retailers profitability. Also, with a relatively healthy global economy, investors are optimistic that this will be a cheery holiday season for virtually all retailers.


The bigger picture: Amazon remains the prime beneficiary.

Jeff Bezos, Amazons founder, celebrated Thanksgiving in the knowledge that his net worth had just surpassed the $100 billion mark largely because of the performance of Amazons stock. While a few retailers are fighting back, notably Wal-Mart, Amazon still took almost half of all online Black Friday orders. In an ever-more-digital world, there is still one major market leader reaping a substantial chunk of the rewards.

Originally posted as part of the Finimize daily email.

The top 2 financial news stories in 3 minutes. Join over one million Finimizers

Read next

South Africas Credit Score Slides Down

Sign up to Finimize

Get the two most important global financial news stories each day. Sent at midnight UK time.

Get started with one email a day

The top financial news stories in 3 minutes.