This week, we’re rounding up the top stories coming out of the Black Friday shopping holiday. A surprising sneak peek: online sales were up once again. Find out all the recent retail news you need to know in our Weekly Must Reads.

Controlled Crowds on Black Friday

As expected, the COVID-19 pandemic limited in-person Black Friday crowds at stores this year. On Friday, store visits in the US dropped by 54 percent compared to Black Friday in 2019, according to Sensormatic Solutions. Most stores chose to open their doors on Friday morning, a departure from the Thanksgiving night openings we’ve seen in past years. Some larger retailers, such as Walmart and Target, still saw small groups of shoppers lined up as the stores opened, but it was a far cry from the usual packs of customers fighting over TVs in the aisles. Even in the last couple years before the pandemic began, stores were starting to see consumer habits change as more people chose to make their holiday purchases online.

However, it’s not all bad news for these retailers. In the absence of events and in-person gatherings, consumers have been spending more money on goods rather than experiences, which had been the recent trend. They’re just not making all of those purchases in person. Find out more about how in-store Black Friday shopping changed this year here: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/black-friday-latest-victim-covid-19-n1249148

Online Shoppers Set Record Numbers

Though traditional Black Friday shopping decreased this year, online sales reached new records. Shoppers spent about $9 billion online on Friday alone, which is a 22 percent increase over online Black Friday sales in 2019. Online sales have been up all year as COVID-conscious consumers avoided brick-and-mortar stores. The weeks leading up to Black Friday also saw higher-than-normal sales, as retailers attempted to spread out shipping demand and make up for lost in-person sales with early deals. It’s estimated shoppers spent about $3 billion per day in the week leading up to Thanksgiving.

Online shopping on Friday benefitted retailers of all kinds. Some of the largest US stores saw 403 percent higher sales than the daily average in October, while small businesses sales were up by 349 percent. So far, some of the most popular online shopping gifts include Hot Wheels cars, Legos, Apple AirPods, Samsung televisions and video games, according to Adobe. Learn more about the Black Friday transition to online shopping here: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/black-friday-sees-record-online-180543568.html

Smartphone Shopping

A growing percentage of those record online sales have actually been driven by smartphones. Black Friday saw $3.6 billion in sales made from smartphones, accounting for about 40 percent of all online sales. Overall smartphone spending is up more than 25 percent from 2019. In addition, other e-commerce methods, including in-store and curbside pickup, saw a 50 percent increase over last year.

Smaller retailers in particular saw a huge increase in sales coming from mobile phones. Shopify has reported that their stores received about 70 percent of their total sales completed on smartphones. Check out more interesting smartphone shopping statistics here: https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/28/black-friday-online-sales-numbers/

The Anti-Black Friday Movement

Instead of trying to adjust their strategies to fit Black Friday into a pandemic shopping season, some brands went in a completely different direction. A number of stores created anti-Black Friday campaigns to make a statement against the sometimes-controversial shopping holiday. Direct-to-consumer weighted blanket brand Bearaby launched a “Sleep on It” campaign encouraging customers to try out their products and make mindful purchases rather than impulse buys. Other brands, including Sprout Kids, Alohas and Shopify, created anti-Black Friday campaigns in support of mental health and environmental initiatives.

For smaller companies, avoiding the typical Black Friday deals can actually help strengthen brand identity and set consumer expectations, since they aren’t teaching customers to hold out for discounts. Even if growing retailers do choose to offer big sales, experts recommend including brand values into each message to create a connection based on more than lower prices. Read more about the anti-Black Friday brands here: https://www.morningbrew.com/marketing/stories/2020/11/24/bearaby-everlane-among-brands-experimenting-antiblack-friday-messaging-year