Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday all boosted consumer spending, thrilling business owners and retails throughout the United States. Now comes the real challenge: keeping up the trend. Many experts predict even better sales over the next few weeks.
Black Friday weekend saw 247 million shoppers, according to the National Retail Federation. Last year saw only 226 million. The group adds that the average shopper spent $423 for the holidays. Spending reached $59.1 billion in total.
The NRF total included the $5.5 billion spent on Small Business Saturday, as well as $1.98 billion on Cyber Monday. Last year, the end of the weekend generated only $1.25 billion in spending.
The Star Gazette analyzes the reasons behind the spending. They explain:
“Retailers will say the sales figures are proof positive that shoppers rallied behind the trend of opening stores on Thanksgiving Day. And, according to the NRF, some 35 million shoppers- 28 percent of all weekend shoppers- visited their favorite stores on Thanksgiving Day, up from last year’s total of 29 million.”
It goes on to say that economists will pin the spending increase on growing consumer confidence and economic recovery. In fact, Bloomberg’s Consumer Comfort Index has revealed that the number of economically-optimistic households is at its highest since 2002.
“Meanwhile, shoppers are saying that, after making it through a tough year, they owe it to themselves to splurge over the holidays,” Star Gazette continues.
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