Consumer spending makes up more than two thirds of US economic activity. So the short but busiest consumer sales season has a huge importance to the US economy for the whole year.
This year, online shoppers spent a grand total of $1.042 billion on Friday, surpassing last year's Black Friday haul by 26 percent, according to the consulting firm Comscore.
Coming next is "CyberMonday," the day Americans go back to work and online retailers launch heavy promotions to reel in more shoppers.
"According to norms we've observed over the past three years," retail analyst ShopperTrak said, the Monday after Thanksgiving "should be the heaviest online shopping day of the season with sales approaching $1.5 billion or even higher."
American consumers spent an average of $423 this weekend, compared to $398 last year, the group reported.
However, the NRF did not revise its prediction for the US holiday shopping season as a whole, keeping it at a 4.1% increase year on year, arguing that consumers remain cautious about the economy.
The looming threat of the "fiscal cliff," which could send taxes soaring if Republicans and Democrats do not reach a compromise on reducing the deficit before the end of the year, also had the retailers worried.
And despite the good numbers overall, sales at brick-and-mortar locations were sluggish on "Black Friday:" in-store traffic increased by 3.5 percent on Friday with more than 307 million visitors, but total sales actually went down compared to the previous year by 1.8 percent, according to ShopperTrak.
Source: Agence France-Presse
Editor: DailyWeeks
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