More Shoppers Spent Less on Black Friday, Shopping Online Grows in Popularity

This year’s Black Friday may have turned out more shoppers, but the larger crowds spent less on average compared to last year. 195 million shoppers hit the stores and went online to do their shopping last Friday, up from 172 million last year, a survey released Sunday by the National Retail Federation found.

The survey, conducted by BIGresearch, found that average spending per shopper over the weekend totaled $343.31 per person, compared to $372.57 a year ago. Total spending was estimated at $41.2 billion.

“While retailers are encouraged by the number of Americans who shopped over Black Friday weekend, they know they have their work cut out for them to keep people coming back through Christmas,” said Tracy Mullin, NRF President and CEO.

People got ann early start this year, the survey found, as nearly one third of shoppers (31.2 percent), were at the stores by 5 am, compared with 23.3 percent in 2008. The top retail destinations this weekend were department stores, with nearly half of holiday shoppers (49.4 percent) visiting at least one department store, followed by discount retailers (43.2 percent).

One-fourth of Americans went online for their shopping over the weekend (28.5%), according to the NRF.

comScore, an internet research company, reported Sunday that Black Friday generated $595 million in online sales, an 11 percent increase compared to 2008. From the beginning of the holiday season, starting November 1, $10.57 billion has been spent online by holiday shoppers. This marks a 3 percent increase compared to last year, comScore found. 

The top online retailers, whose sites were visited by four million unique visitors on Black Friday, were Amazon, Wal-Mart, Apple, Target and Best Buy. Each site, with the exception of Target, saw a double digit rise in unique visitors compared to last year’s Black Friday, according to comScore.