'Black Friday' losing ground to 'cyber anyday' for holiday shopping, numbers show

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- The days of getting up at the crack of dawn the day after Thanksgiving to score holiday megadeals in stores may soon become nothing more than a nostalgic memory, according to statistics from Black Friday this year.

The National Retail Federation announced Sunday that online shoppers actually eclipsed in-store shoppers over the Thanksgiving weekend this year. For years, Black Friday has been accompanied by deep discounts and video footage of shoppers literally fighting over merchandise.

At one point, the post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy gave way to Cyber Monday -- effectively a migration of the Black Friday concept online -- a day the NRF expected 121 million shoppers for this year.

The NRF said this year, 103 million Americans shopped online -- slightly more than the 102 million who visited physical stores.

"We recognize the Thanksgiving weekend shopping experience is much different than it used to be as just as many people want that unique, exclusive online deal as they do that in-store promotion," NRF President Matthew Shay said. "It is clear that the age-old holiday tradition of heading out to stores with family and friends is now equally matched in the new tradition of looking online for holiday savings opportunities."

Of the shoppers who visited a physical store over the weekend, 74.2 million of them did so on Black Friday -- compared with 75.3 million online. About 35 million shopped in stores on Thanksgiving day, when 41 million went online.

The NRF estimated its numbers based on surveys with nearly 4,500 shoppers rather than with actual sales numbers from stores. Those consumers who planned to shop Thanksgiving weekend said they expected to spend about $300 -- down from nearly $400 a year ago.

The trade organization also predicted a sales increase of 3.7 percent for the entire holiday season this year -- slightly below the 4.1 percent increase notched in 2014.

Shay said more shoppers are taking advantage of discounted sales online that begin before Thanksgiving even arrives -- a dynamic that has been forcing retailers to start holiday sales earlier, as well.

"Shopping has changed and the consumer has changed and retailers have changed," he said. "Retailers are heavily promoting starting the day after Halloween."

However, this year's numbers indicate that even Cyber Monday may also be turning obsolete as an exclusive day for big holiday deals -- because shoppers know Internet deals and discounts often stick around beyond the initial five-day holiday period between Thanksgiving day and Cyber Monday.

Analyst Adobe, which aggregated web sales numbers from 4,500 retailers, said consumers spent a record $7.2 billion online on Thanksgiving day and Black Friday this year -- a 14 percent jump over the same days last year.

About a third of those purchases were made using a mobile device, Adobe said.