{"id":2149,"date":"2024-12-01T19:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T19:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webfreetools.net\/blog\/u-s-black-friday-retail-sales-climb-3-4-e-commerce-surges\/"},"modified":"2024-12-01T19:00:27","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T19:00:27","slug":"u-s-black-friday-retail-sales-climb-3-4-e-commerce-surges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webfreetools.net\/blog\/u-s-black-friday-retail-sales-climb-3-4-e-commerce-surges\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Black Friday Retail Sales Climb 3.4%, E-Commerce Surges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Black Friday sales in the United States grew 3.4% compared to last year, according to preliminary data from Mastercard SpendingPulse. The report, which tracks retail sales across all payment types and excludes automotive purchases, revealed a robust performance in e-commerce, which surged 14.6%, while in-store sales showed a modest 0.7% increase.<\/p>\n<p>Shoppers increasingly turned to online platforms for their holiday purchases, with e-commerce sales driving much of the growth on Black Friday. Key gift sectors such as apparel, electronics, and jewelry performed strongly, with apparel seeing significant gains online.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBlack Friday was a good indicator of how the holiday season is positively shaping up,\u201d says Michelle Meyer, chief economist at Mastercard Economics Institute. \u201cOur real-time insights show that consumers are comfortably in the gift-giving spirit as price reductions and deals occur across sectors, supporting budgets for holiday shopping.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Steve Sadove, senior advisor for Mastercard and former CEO of Saks Incorporated, adds, \u201cShoppers are making the most of seasonal deals and enjoying a balance of experiences spending and gifts for all loved ones. They&#8217;re more strategic in their shopping though, prioritizing promotions that they believe hold the greatest value \u2014 opening their wallets, but with more intentional distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Key Themes and Black Friday Spending Trends<\/h2>\n<p>The Mastercard SpendingPulse report identified several trends that defined this year\u2019s Black Friday:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Value-Driven Shopping<\/strong>: Deals and promotions remained a strong motivator for consumers, who strategically targeted discounts on high-value items.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Apparel Momentum<\/strong>: Cooler weather arriving after a warm fall boosted apparel spending. Footwear also outpaced last year\u2019s performance during the same period.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dining and Grocery Growth<\/strong>: Grocery sales increased in the two weeks leading up to Black Friday, as consumers prepared for holiday feasts. On Black Friday itself, restaurant spending showed notable growth.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Regional Standouts<\/strong>: Massachusetts, Washington D.C., and Colorado emerged as regions with stronger spending performance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Black Friday&#8217;s Evolving Role<\/h3>\n<p>Mastercard highlighted the shifting nature of Black Friday from a single shopping day to a broader window of opportunity for both retailers and consumers. Early deals leading up to Thanksgiving captured shopper attention, but Black Friday itself remained a focal point for holiday spending.<\/p>\n<p>The report underlines that consumers are balancing their budgets effectively, taking advantage of discounts to maximize the value of their purchases.<\/p>\n<p><em><small>Image: Envato<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n<p>This article, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smallbiztrends.com\/mastercard-spending-pulse-black-friday-2024-shopping\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S. Black Friday Retail Sales Climb 3.4%, E-Commerce Surges<\/a>&#8221; was first published on <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbiztrends.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Small Business Trends<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Black Friday sales in the United States grew 3.4% compared to last year, according to preliminary data from Mastercard SpendingPulse. The report, which tracks retail sales across all payment types and excludes automotive purchases, revealed a robust performance in e-commerce, which surged 14.6%, while in-store sales showed a modest 0.7% increase. Shoppers increasingly turned to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[98],"class_list":["post-2149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-small-business-news","tag-small-business-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webfreetools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webfreetools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webfreetools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webfreetools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webfreetools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webfreetools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webfreetools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webfreetools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webfreetools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}