Retail Decisions, a payment card issuer that offers services in card fraud prevention and payment processing, has said the purchase value of goods sold on Black Friday and Cyber Monday increased by 83% and 80% respectively, compared with the previous year.
Black Friday falls on the day after Thanksgiving in the US and is the start of the traditional Christmas shopping season. Cyber Monday is celebrated on the Monday immediately following Black Friday. It is the start of the traditional online holiday shopping period.
UK-based Retail Decisions (ReD) keeps track of over 14 billion card transactions annually and also offers perspectives on sales volumes and trends using its processing platforms. The company has been able to identify some of the important trends like most popular gifts and the products that are being targeted by online fraudsters.
Online shopping activity in the US over the period between November 23 and November 26 was also compared with the same period in the previous year. Results indicated that though the purchase value of goods sold and the transaction volume for Black Friday were trailing behind those of Cyber Monday, the overall transaction volume for Black Friday was greater (62.2%).
Carl Clump, CEO of Retail Decisions, said: We were anticipating a great Black Friday for online sales, but the results from Cyber Monday surpassed our expectations.
The difference in the two figures was attributed to the peak shopping hours registered and the special offers being advertised by retailers on both days. According to Clump, retailers utilized the web as their core marketing tool to announce special Cyber Monday promotions.
