Black Friday is renowned for sales, chaos and spending and 2017 was no different. Let’s have a look at this year’s stats:

Record Sales

US retailers took $5.03 billion worth in online sales – a whopping 16.9% increase from last year, with $1.4 billion of those sales going through a smartphone or tablet.

The UK experienced an 8% increase in sales, reaching a peak of 976 transactions per second between 12pm and 1pm.

Most Popular Items

TVs, laptops, gaming consoles and toys were this year’s biggest sellers – the top of everyone’s Christmas lists no doubt.

Popular Retailers

Amazon and eBay were again amongst a long list of other retailers offering price matching, hourly specials and flash lightning deals, whilst over on Shopify, online retailers cumulatively experienced their best Black Friday yet, reaching a peak of over $1,000,000 in sales per minute through the platform: a great example of why multichannel selling is imperative at this time of year.

Critics

Black Friday isn’t without its critics. Chief Executive of Fat Face, Anthony Thompson, told BBC News that Black Friday stops market growth and is bad for UK business, whilst consumer protection group Which? warned shoppers that deals may not be all they seem.

Earlier in the month you may remember that we explained both the benefits and disadvantages of Black Friday and Cyber Monday (and how multichannel management software can help turn it from a disaster to a success) and this year we again saw a mix of retailers embracing, and avoiding the new annual holiday.

How Did You Do?

We’d love to hear how our Expandly users fared in the Black Friday mayhem. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter now.