Retailers See Increases in Online Sales over Last Year’s Thanksgiving Day and Black Frida

PRLog (Press Release) - Dec 01, 2009 -
Channel Intelligence (CI) (http://www.channelintelligence.com/) today announced that results for its online retail customers across all services during the Thanksgiving holiday season were better than originally expected. For a second year in a row, Thanksgiving Day online sales for CI retailers exceeded those of Black Friday, this year by eight percent. In addition, Thanksgiving Day sales for 2009 saw a 67 percent increase over 2008 and Black Friday sales increased 70 percent year over year. The aggregated results from CI retailers exceeds that of the industry increases posted by Comscore, which stated online sales on Thanksgiving Day grew 10 percent and Black Friday 11 percent.

CI, which tracks online sales for many of the largest U.S. retailers across all product verticals, also reports that the days leading up to Thanksgiving, and the weekend following, saw significant sales increases. Comparing the same days year over year, the two days prior to Thanksgiving saw increased sales of 48 percent and 67 percent respectively. Post-Black Friday online sales were similarly positive with Saturday reaching a 73 percent increase and Sunday showing a 66 percent increase in sales over the same days in 2008.

Rob Wight, CEO of Channel Intelligence states, “We saw a tremendous change in how retailers approached Black Friday this year. Online promotions through email, display advertisements and both print and television advertisements all focused their attention on early Black Friday deals, followed by extended Black Friday deals during the weekend. For the first time, we also saw retailers offering “site buster” deals that started on Thanksgiving Day courting shoppers to spend prior to the traditional “door buster” deals that typically begin at 5 AM on Black Friday.”

The company also predicts that Cyber Monday will fall below Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday but above the last free standard shipping day which falls about a week before Christmas. Wight adds, “Home broadband penetration has forever changed the impact of Cyber Monday. Consumers don’t have to wait until they get to work on the Monday after Thanksgiving to shop online using a high speed connection.”

CI boasts a premium roster of retail customers including HP Home and Home Office, Best Buy, Office Max, Neiman Marcus, Spiegel, Sears, Drs. Foster and Smith, Northern Tool + Equipment, Target, Golfsmith, ShoeMall, The Children’s Place, Lane Bryant, Advance Auto Parts, West Marine, ShopNBC, Things Remembered and hundreds more.

*Data reported in this press release compares the year-over-year daily same-store sales results for the two days prior to Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and the following weekend days.

About Channel Intelligence (CI)

CI helps retailers, manufacturers and other advertisers make their products and services easier for consumers to find and buy online and in local retail stores. Integrating its powerful product database with online marketing services such as display advertising, manufacturer based where-to-buy, paid search, shopping engines, social networking, storefront, order management and robust performance analytics, CI offers the most complete set of performance-based commerce services in the industry. The company, through its proprietary Ad Network, also drives $2B annually in referred sales from leading manufacturers to retailers in Computing, Home Improvement, Appliances, Consumer Electronics, Toys and a variety of other consumer packed goods. Clients include Best Buy, HP Home and Home Office, Kimberly-Clark, Neiman Marcus, Philips, Target, Garmin, OfficeMax, Samsung, Charming Shoppes, Black & Decker and hundreds more. CI is a partner company of Internet Capital Group (Nasdaq: ICGE) and Aweida Capital Management. Learn more at www.channelintelligence.com.