Big Black Friday Weekend Winners Were TVs, Game Consoles, CEA Says

While tablets were expected to be the big draw items during Black Friday weekend, maturing categories including TVs and video game consoles did surprisingly well from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, Shawn DuBravac, CEA’s director of research, told us in an interview Tuesday. And although 79 percent of U.S. households own a digital camera, about 32 percent of consumers polled in CEA’s Black Friday survey said they planned to buy a digital camera over the weekend, which DuBravac attributed to new features such as waterproofing, slow motion video and to upgrade buys for D-SLR and mirrorless models. Promotional pricing didn’t hurt, either, he said, as pricing started as low as $20 in at least one sale.

Microsoft reported Tuesday that Xbox 360 “just closed the biggest sales week in the history of Xbox,” selling more than 960,000 consoles in the U.S. during the week of Black Friday, with more than 800,000 of those ringing up within a 24-hour period. In addition, Microsoft said, more than 750,000 Kinect sensors were sold in the U.S., both standalone and bundled. “Video game consoles did extremely well although they're well into their life cycle,” he said. “We're 5 years into the Wii and 4 years into the others, but there’s a still lot of interest in the category."

Published reports of TVs “peaking” this Black Friday season are overblown, DuBravac said, citing TVs’ history as the doorbuster leader for deals such as this year’s Sharp $199 42-inch TV at Best Buy and the $298 46-inch Westinghouse model at Target. “TVs are quite synonymous with Black Friday,” DuBravac said. “It’s hard to imagine they won’t be for a few more years.” He referred to TVs as a “major driver” for Black Friday and given the amount of excitement and conversation they generate because of the deals, “it’s hard to imagine that’s going to go away,” he said. “I don’t think we're done yet,” he said, saying the average household owns three TVs and buys a new TV every 3 years as a replacement model. Internet-connected TVs started to show up in Black Friday TVs this year, and he believes they'll show up more in 2012. “There’s bound to be motivation by retailers and manufacturers to ensure there are great deals to be had,” he said.

Online sales on Cyber Monday jumped 33 percent over last year, according to data from IBM’s Cyber Monday Benchmark, which analyzes real-time sales data from the websites of more than 500 U.S. retailers. Average order value rose 2.6 percent to $198.26, and the number of items per order was up almost 13 percent to 7.31, IBM said. Amid the increased use of cart-loading by e-tailers -- requiring consumers to place an item in a virtual cart to find the price of goods -- cart conversions were up slightly to 37.69 percent from 36.32 percent, IBM said.

As expected, smartphones played a larger role in the shopping process this year, IBM said. The number of shoppers who purchased Monday using a cellphone hopped 193 percent to 6.58 percent, according to data. Mobile session length for transactions was 4:10 versus 7:30 for non-mobile online sessions, it said. iPhone traffic led Android traffic by a point in percentage of overall sales, and 3.27 percent of transactions were made by iPad versus less than a percentage point last year. Black Friday mobile sales transactions outpaced Cyber Monday ones by 33 percent, with 9.84 percent of sales done by mobile device Friday compared with 6.58 percent Monday.

Social media had limited impact on sales, IBM said, as shoppers referred from social networking sites generated 0.56 percent of all online sales on Cyber Monday. That compared with 0.53 percent on Black Friday, it said. Facebook accounted for 86 percent of all social media traffic, it said. But the impact of social media is growing, according to the report, which said discussions on social media sites leading up to Cyber Monday grew 115 percent over last year. Cyber Monday discussions focused on tips about using price comparison websites, how to avoid cyber scams and deals for international customers, it said. Participants also conversed about Black Friday in-store shopping experiences, it said.