Adam Hunger/AP Images for Target
Black Friday shoppers at Target
- $4 shoppers have spent more than $3.5 billion online.
- The deals have never been steeper.
- The demand for discounts and rise of online shopping could be a problem for some retailers if they fail to adjust their strategies.
Black Friday sales are surging, with shoppers spending more than $3.5 billion online as of Friday morning.
Shoppers spent a total $2.9 billion online on Thanksgiving - a 18% increase over last year, according to Adobe Analytics. By 10 a.m. ET on Friday, shoppers had spent an additional $640 million online.
"Thanksgiving is shaping up to be a record-breaking shopping day," said Mickey Mericle, the vice president of marketing and customer insights for Adobe.
However, the surging sales hide two ominous realities.
Getty/Stephanie Keith
First, retailers have had to $4 to get shoppers to spend money.
Discounts are hitting record highs this year, according to Edited, a
Retailers have additionally started offering more deals all year round, making Black Friday less of a special event.
"The whole idea of Black Friday and Cyber Monday ... is becoming less relevant as the consumer is generally accustomed to great deals, or at least getting a deal," Josh Elman, a consumer and retail analyst with Nasdaq Advisory Services, told Business Insider.
Second, a record-breaking day of sales on Thanksgiving Day reveals the increasing irrelevance of Black Friday as a single day of sales. According to Salesforce, Thanksgiving is shaping up to be the third-biggest shopping day of the year, after Cyber Monday and Black Friday.
Additionally, an increasing proportion of these sales are happening online. With people $4$4 traditional Black Friday - with crowds of people lining up to get into stores the day after Thanksgiving - is dead.
Shoppers are $4$107.4 billion online this holiday season, which would represent an increase of nearly 14% over last year, according to Adobe.