Sales in brick-and-mortar stores across the United States in the year's most anticipated retail day, Black Friday, fell to $10.4 billion this year. The figures show a noticeable decline in the sales of stores from last year when retailers were able to reach $11.6 billion in sales, according to The New York Daily News.
ShopperTrak, a research firm, further stated that sales in physical stores during Thanksgiving dropped as well, with figures reaching only $1.8 billion. Last year, Thanksgiving sales reached just a bit more than $2 billion.
Overall, data from analytics firm RetailNext has shown that the sales for both days fell 1.5 percent on flat customer traffic. The average in-store customer spending has also dropped by 1.4 percent, reported Reuters.
Despite the decline in sales however, both firms believe that the coming holiday season will bode well for retailers. ShopperTrak, for one, has released a forecast of a 2.4 percent increase for overall sales in November and December.
One thing that has taken a huge chunk out of the stores' customers is online shopping, which saw a steep surge in sales compared to previous years.
A few years ago, Black Friday heralded the start of the holiday shopping season. This year, however, most brick-and-mortar retailers offered great deals in their online stores even before the sale day, prompting customers to shop online, rather than wait in line.
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