WANT - Early start to holiday shopping season pulls from Black Friday-Cyber Monday tally

The National Retail Federation says it saw the expected shift to digital by consumers during the Black Friday to Cyber Monday shopping period, For the first time ever, the number of online shoppers on Black Friday topped 100M and was 8% higher than a year ago. Overall, there were 186M shoppers during the four-day shopping period vs. 190M a year ago and 166M two years. More than half of the shoppers were online only. The average amount spent by consumers $312 vs. $362 a year ago. NRF analyst Matthew Shay notes that early shopping events pulled forward sales from the traditional Black Friday to Cyber Monday window. Top gift purchases over the weekend included clothing (bought by 52% of those surveyed), toys (32%), books/music/movies/video games (29%), gift cards/certificates (29%) and electronics (27%).ETFs: [[XLY]], [[XRT]], [[VCR]], [[FDIS]], [[RTH]], [[RETL]], [[EMTY]], [[IYC]], [[IYK]], [[WANT]], [[FXD]], [[UCC]], [[RCD]], [[SCC]], [[UGE]], [[SZK]], [[JHMC]], [[FTXD]]

For further details see:

Early start to holiday shopping season pulls from Black Friday-Cyber Monday tally