Black Friday draws crowds of deal-seekers

The world’s largest retailer said in a statement Friday that Thanksgiving was one of its top online-shopping days this year and that about 70 percent of the traffic to its website came from mobile devices. Maps can be viewed now online and on the app, and printed copies will be available in stores on Black Friday.

Tablets had some of the steepest price markdowns online this Black Friday, with an average discount of 25.4 percent, Adobe said.

While some shoppers said they hit the stores out of tradition, many consumers said they were largely focused on grabbing deeply discounted items.

Target Corp. and other brick-and-mortar chains are counting on heavier discounts and a bigger online selection to help keep up with Amazon.com Inc. this holiday season. Around 137 million people plan to or are considering doing their shopping during the Thanksgiving weekend, according to a survey conducted for the National Retail Federation trade group. She started shopping at 7 a.m. and was heading into her third store by 9:30.

With an estimated $3.05 billion expected by the day’s close, Black Friday 2016 is up 11.4 percent from the same day past year, says Adobe. That excludes auto sales, gas and restaurant receipts, but includes online spending and other non-store sales such as catalog spending.

“There will be continuing dominance in online sales today as consumers increasingly realize they will get the same deals in-store and online”, said Brent Schoenbaum, a partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP.

All told, shoppers spent $5.27 billion in online purchases on Thursday and Friday, up 17.7 percent from the two-day period past year, Adobe said. We’ve done this every year.

Target reported more than 60% of its online sales came from mobile customers, while Amazon reported mobile orders on Turkey Day exceeded Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday a year ago.

For years, Black Friday has started the holiday shopping season in the United States with retailers offering steep discounts.

Anastasia Trevino is glad to avoid the long lines associated with Black Friday. Customers will be able to shop the majority of Walmart’s Black Friday deals early on Walmart.com beginning at 12:01 a.m. ET on Thanksgiving morning.

“I get it”, Gould said. “Never pay full price”, she said. Amazon said that mobile orders on Thanksgiving topped Cyber Monday previous year, for example, while Walmart said that over 70 percent of website traffic on Thanksgiving was mobile.

“It feels like it’s three days ago”, Walch said.

“The men are all watching the [football] game, and we all went shopping, said food quality supervisor Dee Nardelli, 47, of Shiloh Township, in Cumerland County”.

“That’s time for family”, Bohorquez said.

“I don’t have to fight the crowds to get the same deal”, said the minister from Purcell, Okla. “Convenience is a big part of it”. Nicholas Wingo, a 32-year-old security officer at Hugo Boss in the Fashion Outlets of Chicago mall, said the store had a steady stream of customers but no long lines.

Crowds were also relatively thin at other stores in the mall, including J.C. Penney JCP.N and Abercrombie & Fitch ANF.N . Exton Square Mall beat those two malls by an hour by opening 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving and will stay open until 10 p.m. “We’ve talked about it for a while as mobile being the front door for Target“. “They were giving coupons of different value, some up to $500”.

But it’s those very shoppers retailers are trying to keep as loyal customers, working to improve their own online sites and letting people pick up purchases in the store as the retailers try to fend off the Amazon juggernaut.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said in addition to Black Friday favorites like televisions and toys, shoppers were looking for drones, virtual reality products and hoverboards. “It’s become quite a trend, especially with the department stores”.