While Black Friday is not recognized as an official US holiday, it marks the start of retailers last chance to salvage the year or at least move some dead inventory. Ironically, many employees have the day off - except those working in retail! “Ever since the start of the modern Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, the Friday after Thanksgiving has been known as the unofficial start to a bustling holiday shopping season,” notes Statista Research.
Although there are those who would say we have been stuck in a Ground Hog’s Day endless cycle of Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays since the onset of the pandemic, Ecommerce already accounted for 20.9% of total holiday sales in 2019, according to the National Retail Federation. “During the pandemic, online and other non-store sales have increased and retailers are planning for a greater portion of their sales to come from ecommerce this year,” adds the NRF.
Over the 2020 holiday season, NRF expects that online sales will increase between 20%-30% this year to between $202.5 billion and $218.4 billion, up from $168.7 billion last year.