Thanksgiving Day again breaks online sales record – CNET

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Were you shopping while waiting for turkey?

Chris Monroe/CNET

Were you bargain shopping online Thursday to help fill the hours before the turkey came out of the oven?

You weren’t alone, as online spending on Thanksgiving Day hit $3.7 billion in the US, breaking last year’s record of $2.87 billion, according to Adobe Analytics. In 2016, that number was $1.3 billion.

That’s just further evidence Black Friday is no longer the official kickoff of the holiday shopping season. It starts as early as Nov. 1 these days, with Thanksgiving Day stealing some of Black Friday’s sales thunder with online promotions taking place as the brick-and-mortar stores are closed for the holiday.

Adobe tracks e-commerce transactions across 80 of the top 100 US retailers. Here are a few more interesting findings from Adobe’s real-time holiday analytics report:

  • Since Nov. 1, US consumers have spent $38 billion online.
  • About 60 percent of revenue since Nov. 1 came from sales made on desktop devices, about 30 percent from purchases made via smartphones and about 10 percent from sales made via tablets.
  • As of 7 a.m. PT, Black Friday online sales were already at $643 million, which is about on par with this point last year.
  • The 5 top-selling items on Thanksgiving were Nintendo Switch, Beats headphones, Hot Wheels, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Hatchibabies, interactive plush toys that hatch out of their speckled shells. 

Nintendo Switch