Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair rallied after record Black Friday online sales
An Amazon worker moves a package onto a cart at an Amazon delivery station on November 28, 2022 in Alpharetta, Georgia.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Over Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend, shoppers turned out in full force, mostly eschewing brick-and-mortar stores for the convenience of clicking “Buy Online” from the comfort of their couches.
According to Adobe Analytics, online spending in the US reached a record $9.8 billion on Black Friday, up 7.5% from a year earlier. Online sales during Cyber Weekend, the days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, rose 7.7% to $10.3 billion. Cyber Monday sales are expected to reach $12.4 billion, making it the biggest US online shopping day of the year, according to Adobe.
The strong performance proved a boon for many e-commerce-focused retailers, and their shares rose on Monday as investors welcomed early results. Actions Etsy and Wayfair closed about 3% and 7%, respectively, at that time Amazon shares rose by 0.6%. Shopify shares closed up nearly 5% in afternoon trading after the online shopping software company said merchants generated a record $4.1 billion in sales.
Analysts and investors closely monitor sales during the five-day period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday as a barometer for the overall holiday shopping season. The National Retail Federation, a trade group, expects shoppers to spend more this year than last year and sales in November and December to rise 3% to 4% year over year. Although inflation has cooled, grocery prices are still high, and recovering student loan payments have eaten into some consumers’ vacation budgets.
Against this backdrop, budget-conscious consumers have turned to buy-now-pay-later features to replenish their wallets. According to Adobe, “buy now, pay later” services such as Affirm, Klarna and Afterpay led to $5.9 billion in online spending between November 1 and 23, an increase of 13, 4% compared to last year. Actions Confirm on Monday closed up almost 12%.
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told CNBC’s The Exchange that the company was “very shocked” to see the power of its buy-now-pay-later services during Black Friday.
“It just shows how much market share both buy now pay later and Klarna are gaining,” Semyatkowski said. I think it’s both cash register share and more merchants offering it and more consumers opting for it overall.”
New e-commerce entrants such as the short-form video app TikTok and discount-rich Chinese online marketplace Temu have sought to capitalize on holiday demand with big promotions of their own. TikTok, which opened its U.S. TikTok Shop in September, is offering free shipping and discounts of 20% to 30% on a variety of products, from Farmacy humidifier and Blue Bottle Coffee instant coffee powder to virtually unknown brands like ” BEDSUM » silk pillowcases “Terviiix” combs.
Temu, a thrift store that offers clothing, home goods, electronics and beauty products from the odd to the cheaper of similar well-known brands, had its own Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. It offered discounts of up to 90% on products in several categories, including a “Cyber Week Clearance” starting at 39 cents on select items. One of Cyber Day’s best sellers, the Plastic Rice Bowl is 68% off to $1.89 with free shipping.
