Friday, 26th November, was Black Friday in the US, so-called
because it’s traditionally the first day retailers move back into
profit–the black. Although known as a day when bricks-and-mortar
retailers pull out all the promotional stops, online sellers are
also starting to cash in on this shopping event. According to
some reports Americans spent $648 million online on Black
Friday.
The most-visited US retail site in the week ending Saturday, 27th
November was Amazon.com, which commanded 12.8 per cent of all
visits to websites in the Hitwise category “Retail
500-2009”, during the week. Close behind was Walmart with
10.8 per cent of visits. The rest of the top five included Target,
Best Buy and JC Penney.
In the UK, no Black Friday tradition exists, though
Amazon is trying to import it. Its strategy, however, did not
guarantee it the top spot in the UK version of Hitwise’s
most-visited chart. Amazon.co.uk received 8 per cent of all
internet visits in the Shopping and Classifieds category, lagging
behind online auction site eBay, which received 17.3 per cent of
all visits during that week. There was also a huge gap between
second-placed Amazon and third-placed Argos, which received 2.44
per cent of internet visits. Music, games, and DVD etailer
Play.com was fourth, with 1.56 per cent of visits, and Tesco was
fifth with 1.4 per cent.
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