Big Drop in Black Friday Retails Store Traffic Compared To 2019 As Many Shoppers Opt To Go Online

Preliminary data shows a drop of 28.3% in foot traffic at U.S. retails stores on Black Friday as compared to 2019 levels.

What happened: Sensormatic Solutions found that the drop was even bigger for Thanksgiving Day, visits to brick-and-mortar stores plummeted by 90.4% compared to 2019. Retailers including Target Corp TGT, Walmart Inc WMT and Best Buy Co Inc BBY chose to remain closed on the holiday. 

On a positive note, in-person shopper traffic on Black Friday was up 47.5% compared with 2020, when many shoppers stayed home.

Traffic was closest to returning to 2019 levels in the South, followed by the Midwest and then the Western U.S., according to a report from CNBC.

Brian Field, senior director of global retail consulting for Sernormatic, said concerns over the newly identified omicron variant of COVID-19 did not likely impact in-store sales.

Meanwhile, online retailers registered $8.9 billion in sales on Black Friday, down from the record set in 2020 of about $9 billion, according to data from Adobe Analytics.

The analysis also found that on Thanksgiving Day consumers spent $5.1 billion online, similar to last year's numbers.

What’s Next: Adobe is anticipating e-commerce sales to be between $10.2 billion and $11.3 billion on Cyber Monday. Out-of-stock messages on the websites of retailers are up 124% through Friday compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Appliances, electronics, housekeeping supplies and home and garden accessories are the most likely items to be out-of-stock.

Related Link: At A Loss For Holiday Gift Ideas? Here're Some Suggestions For You