Black Friday should be rebranded as Mobile Shopping Friday

A new record was set on Black Friday—$5.6 billion in online sales in the U.S. according to?Adobe Analytics, with sales shooting up 5.5 percent compared to last year’s numbers. Although analysts had initially predicted hitting the $9.6 billion mark on Black Friday, U.S. consumers still showed up strong. However, the big news towering over these numbers was that 79 percent of all shopping traffic was ushered in on mobile handsets.

This data point strengthens what winning retailers already know: consumers using their mobile devices, phones and tablets drive an ever-increasing part of commerce growth. According to?Statista's Market Insights, mobile e-commerce sales are poised to reach $2.2 trillion this year and now make up 60 percent of all e-commerce sales worldwide. With over half (54 percent) of the global population—approximately 4.3 billion —now owning a smartphone, according to the GSMA’s annual?State of Mobile Internet Connectivity Report 2023, mobile is the channel to exploit, monitor and master.

Shoppers increased use of mobile devices to browse and buy underscores the imperative for retailers and online marketplaces to create well-designed, simple-to-use experiences for their mobile websites and apps. Each shopper’s journey, end to end, needs to be designed for the mobile phone.

Social media usage is also driving this record number. All social media sites now have incorporated “buy buttons” that let shoppers make purchases without leaving the platform. Research by Global WebIndex tells us that 60 percent of the world's population uses social media, with average daily usage coming in at 2 hours and 24 minutes (April 2023).

Let’s face it: mobile devices are the leading catalyst for changing consumers' shopping habits. Now, just imagine what next year’s “Mobile Shopping Friday” will look like.