Consumers took Black “Friday” by storm this year setting ground-breaking records with the largest online presence in its history. 2018’s Black Friday shopping festivities also started earlier than ever. Right after Thanksgiving dinner, consumers everywhere jumped straight to their cellphones to begin their holiday shopping. SalesForce reported that peak sales times were between 8 to 10 pm and started ramping up as early as 4 pm local times. Black Friday was also the first day ever to see more than $2 billion in sales coming from smartphones alone. According to MarketingLand, a record $6.22 billion was recorded in online sales for Black Friday — an increase of 23.6 percent from last year.

An Adobe Analytics spokesperson shares more on the trend of online shopping on Thanksgiving day over the past several years:

“We attribute this to many consumers being on the road or with family during the holiday, and they’re using this time to shop (often via mobile). The takeaway for marketers is there’s an opportunity to market to consumers on and around Thanksgiving Day – not only the traditionally known shopping holidays like Cyber Monday and Black Friday.”

What’s New This Year

Another rising trend in the year of 2018 holiday shopping thus far has been buying online and picking up your purchase in-store. The growth in this shopper has risen 73 percent from Thursday to Friday, which can be credited mainly to stores being closed on Thanksgiving day. Nevertheless, this is a trend gaining ground quickly and presents an opportunity for marketers to capitalize on and make easier for consumers.

More than one-third of online Black Friday sales were made on smartphones surpassing last year’s 29.1 percentage of online purchases. $2.1 billion were done in sales this year via smartphone on Black Friday, completely shattering the record set last year on Cyber Monday at $1.4 billion. The trend of smartphone shopping is here to stay and will only continue to increase every single year.

Why These Sales Are Important

Holiday shopping is just getting started! While 2018 Black Friday and Small Business Saturday shopping is in the books, Cyber Monday kicked off today and is predicted to be the largest online shopping day in history. The opportunity here is recognizing the importance of mobile to consumers in today’s holiday shopping adventures. The companies that place their efforts in developing an extremely user-friendly mobile interface will be very successful with their consumers. It is also recommended to pace your holiday sales throughout the holiday seasons instead of focusing solely on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.