You Spent $1.2 Billion Shopping Online on Black Friday

According to comScore, consumers shopping online spent $1.2 billion buying stuff on Black Friday. It was, the firm says, the first billion-dollar-plus day of the holiday season so far.

On Thanksgiving Day, consumers spent about $766 million online, up 21 percent from 2012. Compared to last year, it’s a 15 percent improvement, or $156 million higher than the Black Friday 2012 total of $1.04 billion. Now, that’s a tricky comparison, owing to the fact that Thanksgiving fell rather late on the calendar this year versus last year. Overall, comScore reckons that 66 million people visited online retail sites on Nov 29, which sounds impressive until you do the math. Assuming that each of them bought something that works out to an average transaction amount of about $18 and change. Amazon was the king of the online retailers as the most-visited shopping site, followed by eBay, Walmart, Best Buy and Target. The top category was apparel and accessories, accounting for 28 percent of purchases, followed by computer hardware, consumer electronics, packaged goods, and shipping services.

(Dec 1)