Black Friday rosier than expected

USA: A variety of retail-watching experts are churning out Black Friday sales facts, figures and customer inclinations, and while it wasn't a rip-roaring Black Friday compared to previous years, it wasn't all that bad - particularly for the hot-selling consumer electronics sector.

By Chris Maxcer

2 Dec 2008

Comparison shopping site PriceGrabber.com, for instance, is reporting that adverse economic conditions have motivated value-driven customers to boost online traffic 11% over last year's Black Friday. PriceGrabber.com data shows that online consumers gravitated toward promotions of popular electronics, including flat-panel TVs, Blu-ray disc players, digital SLR cameras, laptops and video game consoles.

"PriceGrabber.com saw an 11% increase in traffic this Black Friday compared to Black Friday 2007. Despite the economic conditions, consumers are looking for value - 71% of respondents in our recent survey indicated that they would be spending less on holiday shopping this year, and 55% said they would do the majority of their holiday shopping online," Ron LaPierre, president of PriceGrabber.com, told the E-Commerce Times.

"This, combined with the increase in traffic to our site on Black Friday, keeps me hopeful that this holiday season will be a good one for us," he added.

PriceGrabber.com also noted that some customers would focus on useful gifts.

On the practical side, women's boots showed a whopping 203% growth, which was bested by 415% growth in women's sleep and lounge wear. To compare on the tech side, Blu-ray and DVD players grew 147%, followed by music and headphones.

More specifically, the Nintendo Wii game console and the game "Wii Fit" were both popular, along with these particular electronics: