Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Here's some info from Shoppertrak regarding this year's Black Friday holiday retail sales ... The good news for all of us ... retailers need our help!

Black Friday proved to be a mixed bag for retailers, as retail foot traffic increased over last year, but retail sales decreased slightly.

ShopperTrak, the world's largest counter of retail foot traffic, estimates that, when compared to Black Friday last year, retail foot traffic rose 3.5%, to more than 307.67 million store visits. Retail sales decreased 1.8%, however, with shoppers spending an estimated total of $11.2 billion yesterday.

"Black Friday continues to be an important day in retail," said Bill Martin, ShopperTrak founder. "This year, though, more retailers than last year began their 'doorbuster' deals on Thursday, Thanksgiving itself. So while foot traffic did increase on Friday, those Thursday deals attracted some of the spending that's usually meant for Friday."

ShopperTrak said that total foot traffic by region, compared to 2011 Black Friday, changed as follows:

• Midwest: increased 12.9%
• Northeast: increased 7.6%
• South: increased 8.7%
• West: decreased 11.3 %