The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) has revealed that smartphones are now the “most used device” for Black Friday shopping, notching 41% of consumer usage. Consumer technology also nabbed the most popular sales category during the American-originated sale.
For the first time ever, smartphone usage surpassed other electronics platforms for Black Friday shopping, ahead of desktop computers (38% of usage) and laptops (34% of usage).
2017 is also the first time that shopper numbers on Cyber Monday surpassed those on Black Friday in the holiday’s home country, the United States.
CTA Senior Director of Market Research, Steve Koenig, affirms that the 2017 holiday season is an “official milestone for mobile shopping”:
“High ownership rates of mobile devices paired with targeted advertising, deal notifications and social media ad campaigns, have given rise to the ‘omnishopper,’ who is eager to pounce on the online deals that have frequently spanned the entire Black Friday shopping week”
“With the shift to greater use of mobile devices to shop online, it’s no surprise that Cyber Monday – the biggest online shopping holiday – has surpassed Black Friday in number of total shoppers for the first time ever”.
Consumer technology was the leading sales category during the ‘Black Friday shopping week’, with televisions, headphones and laptops notching the leading sub-categories.
“Technology performed even better than expected over the Black Friday shopping week thanks, in part, to impulse tech purchases and excitement around emerging tech,” states Koenig.
“With mobile technology allowing you to shop anywhere, at any time, and act quickly – half of shoppers made unplanned tech purchases this past week. Tech will remain a dominant category in shoppers’ carts – especially headphones, laptops, smartphones and TVs – for the remainder of the holiday shopping season”.
The CTA’s research predicts that Black Friday sales have not hampered the Christmas sales season, with 71% of American adults still planning to shop throughout the remaining of the holiday period. Of those, 39% intend to purchase a consumer electronics product.
