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In the world of retail, Thanksgiving traditionally marks the beginning of the Holiday shopping season.
The day after Thanksgiving is known in retail parlance as Black Friday, on of the major U.S. shopping days. The origin of Black Friday comes from the shift to profitability during the holiday season. Black Friday was when retailers went from being unprofitable ( in the red) to being profitable (in the black). This term dates back to pre-internet when accounting was done by hand in ledgers and “red ink” was used to indicate a loss.
How Many Shop on Black Friday? Last year more than 140 million shoppers hit the stores and the web the day after Thanksgiving, to take advantage of retailers special promotional prices and free shipping. The average shopper spent over $360.00 that day. According to NRF, the items most frequently purchased were clothing or clothing accessories (41.4%) as well as books, CDs, DVDs, videos or video games (41.4%). Also on many Christmas lists were consumer electronics or computer-related accessories (33.3%) as well as toys (28.3%), gift cards/gift certificates (17.6%) and home décor or home-related furnishings (17.4%).
What About Cyber Monday? Although the term Black Friday has historic roots, Cyber Monday is a recent addition to the retail lexicon. Because it is so much faster to shop with a high speed or broadband connection, many shoppers wait until returning to work on the Monday after Thanksgiving, to shop on line on the company’s time to search for gift bargain. Each year for the last three, shopping has increased on this day. In 2006, a new site was launched for the bargain minded www.cybermonday.com According to the Shop.org eHoliday Study, Cyber Monday was the second biggest shopping day of the year last year. The study found that two-thirds (63.4%) of retailers saw substantial growth on Cyber Monday in 2006 and a third of online retailers said that their Cyber Monday sales were up more than 30% from the previous year
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