US retail e-commerce spending for the first 26 days of the November-December 2010 holiday season reached $11.64 billion, up 13% from the same period in 2009, according to comScore.
Spending on Black Friday (Nov. 26) totaled $648 million, making it the heaviest online spending day to date in 2010, and 9% higher than Black Friday 2009 levels.
Meanwhile, Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 26)—traditionally a lighter day for online holiday spending—reached $407 million, up 28% from the previous year.
Black Friday Deal-Seeking Sites
Online consumers traveled to Black Friday deal sites to conduct research in advance of the day's events. Among eight Black Friday deal sites monitored by comScore, Black-Friday.net was the most visited site for the five days ended Black Friday (Nov. 22-26), with 3.1 million unique visitors, up 42% over the corresponding days in 2009.
BlackFriday.info followed with 2.7 million visitors, while Black-Friday2010.com (up 478% to 1.5 million visitors) recorded the highest growth.
Below, other Black Friday deal-seeking stats:
- The number of visitors to coupon sites on Black Friday reached 3.6 million, up 4% over a year earlier, while the total number of visits to the category increased 16% to 7.4 million.
- BlackFriday.info was the most visited coupon site on Black Friday with 630,000 unique visitors, followed by CouponCabin.com (543,000), RetailMeNot.com (332,000 visitors) and Groupon.com (332,000).
- ShopLocal.com ranked as the most visited comparison shopping site on Black Friday with 2.1 million visitors, up 45% from a year earlier.
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Amazon Wins Black Friday Online
Four retail properties surpassed four million US unique visitors on Black Friday. Amazon was the most visited retail property on Black Friday, growing 25% from Black Friday 2009, followed by Wal-Mart, which recorded a marginal 1% decline. Target (up 9%) and Best Buy (up 1%) rounded out the top four.
"Amazon, with a sizeable increase in traffic on Black Friday, continues to experience remarkable success during the holiday season," said comScore Chairman, Gian Fulgoni. "We will be watching closely to see if the leading online retailer is able to sustain this momentum through Cyber Monday and into the heart of the online shopping season."
