Black Friday

According to the stats online retailers probably had the best Thanksgiving this weekend because those discounts reserved by Cyber Monday were widely offered through the weekend. Cyber Monday is the day when many people returning to work after Thanksgiving make gift purchases online.

"We've actually never seen a Thanksgiving Day this robust before online," said Fiona Dias, EVP of strategy and marketing for GSI Commerce, which operates more than 100 online stores for retailers including Toys R Us, Aeropostale Inc and Polo Ralph Lauren Corp.

The economy still has not recovered completely from the lows that it fell to over the last year. Despite the poor economy, there are signs that things are slowly moving back to normal and shoppers this holiday season were spending money.
Black Friday shopping grew 11% compared to 2008 both online and in retail stores. ComScore reported that online shopping for 2009 was expected to hit $28.8 billion compared to the $28 billion spent online for the 2008 holiday season.

 Many economists and experts continue their lauding the achievements made to date that moved us forth from where we had been in the crisis. They say that the worst of the US recession is over now and improved reports in jobs, consumer spending and housing are taken as an index of recovery.

According to comScore, the key US Christmas shopping day saw e-commerce sales rise by one per cent on November 28th compared with the same date last year, with Thanksgiving Day transactions up by six per cent.

Internet-based retail sales reached $534 million in total, while those for the four weeks ending on Black Friday dropped by four per cent to $10.4 billion.

A new survey has revealed that 83.7 per cent of US online retailers expect to advertise a special promotion for Cyber Monday - the first Monday after Thanksgiving.

The popular Christmas shopping day will see 38.8 per cent of e-commerce sites offer a specific deal, while 32.7 per cent will engage in email marketing, 24.5 per cent will put on a one-day sale and 22.5 per cent will provide free shipping, according to the poll by Shopzilla for Shop.org.