Crisis persists: Americans spend less during Thanksgiving

Shoppers spend less

Between Thursday morning and Sunday evening, more people hit the streets than in 2012. In total, 141 million
Americans went looking for sales, 1.2 % more than last year. Especially the age bracket 18-34 went bargain
hunting and three quarters ponied up some cash.

The average amount spent was lower
than last year though, with 407.02 dollars (300 euro), compared to 423.55
dollars (313 euro) last year. The National Retail Federation believes the difficult economic situation and a
late Thanksgiving are to blame for lower spending: both meant
retailers handed out discounts from mid-November onwards, leading to
more people purchasing items then instead of during the Thanksgiving period.

E-commerce breaking record

Internet transactions were on the rise. Adobe Systems states 1.06 billion
dollars (780 million euro) worth of items were purchased on Thanksgiving, an 18
% increase. Black Friday performed even
better, raking in 1.93 billion dollars (1.43 billion euro), a 39 % increase.
Market research company comScore scored both days a bit lower, with 766 million dollars (565.9 million euro) for Thanksgiving and 1.2 billion dollars (890 million euro) for Black Friday.

The NRF calculates that some 59 million people purchased something online
the past weekend. The average spend was 177.67 dollars (131 euro) per person, a 43.7 % of their total budget for the
period. Last year, people only spent 40.7 % of their total shopping budget
online.

Thanksgiving is one of the most important American sales periods of the
year. It marks the start of the holiday sales and for the entire period, NRF is expecting a 602.1 billion dollar
turnover (445 billion euro). That would be a 3.9 % increase compared to
2012. The average consumer will nevertheless spend 2 % less, 737.95 dollars
(545 euro).

(Translated by Gary Peeters)