Christmas season shopping exploded to a record $5 billion in online sales this Black Friday, showing that the Internet is still growing as a major artery of commerce nationwide.
The $5 billion raked in over the 24-hour, Black Friday shopping day is a 16.9 percent increase over last year’s sales during the day, according to CNN Money.
Online giant Amazon claims sales rolled in “at record levels.” and reports that more than 200,000 toys were sold in just five hours.
But, with good news for bricks and mortar outlets, estimates from ShopperTrak show that traffic in stores was only down slightly over last year. The industry tracker said foot traffic in stores “decreased less than one percent when compared to Black Friday 2016.”
Foot traffic was down only 2 percent over last year for both the Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday shopping days.
But ShopperTrak’s Brian Field also notes that fewer stores opted to open on Thanksgiving Day this year.
ShopperTrak is not the only group touting this year’s booming sales. Adobe Analytics also reported booming sales with a $5.03 billion haul over Black Friday, CNET reported.
Adobe also noted that Thanksgiving Day shopping saw a big jump with 18.3 percent over 2016’s $1.3 billion.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston
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