Black Friday sees record $7.4B in online sales at TechCrunch. “The figures were up by $1.2 billion on Black Friday 2018 but they actually fell short of Adobe’s prediction for the day, which was $7.5 billion.” Read more

 

Thanksgiving Day saw record online sales of $4.2 billion at CNN. “According to Deloitte’s annual pre-Thanksgiving survey of American shoppers, 82% of Generation Z shoppers (18-22 years old) and 60% of Millennial shoppers (23-38 years old) said they planned to shop with family and friends. That compares to 49% of Gen X, 41% of Baby Boomers and 50% of seniors surveyed.” Read more

 

Retailers see biggest-ever Cyber Monday after record online Black Friday at AP News. “Adobe Analytics on Sunday predicted the opening weekend of U.S. retailers’ crucial holiday season would set a new record of almost $30 billion in sales, with Cyber Monday – now traditionally the U.S. economy’s biggest online shopping day – alone expected to reach $9.4 billion.” Read more

 

Target, Walmart and other major retailers are a threat to Amazon this Cyber Monday at CNBC. “Walmart and Target had bigger jumps than Amazon in online customer spending during the first two weeks of November compared with the same period last year, according research firm Edison Trends, which looked at more than 1.2 million transactions. Walmart took in 51% more than last year, while Target followed close behind with a 47% increase. Amazon’s customer spending grew just 32%.” Read more

 

Amazon Tests Cheap Warehouses to Make Cyber Monday Snafu-Free by Spencer Soper at Bloomberg. “The new service, Amazon Storage and Replenishment, lets its merchants stage inventory close to Amazon’s delivery operation so products can be quickly replenished, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg. Amazon is trying out the program in Ontario, California, about 20 miles from its closest facilities and has plans to expand the program to other locations around the country, according to the documents.” Tiered subs.

 

Is Black Friday only an American tradition? Not anymore by Coral Murphy at USA Today. “The expansion of chains such as Walmart around the world has prompted some countries to adopt the Black Friday custom of big sales. Take Argentina: Black Friday sales grew more than 376% in the past five years in the Latin American country, according to a survey by Black Friday Global.” Read more

 

Tight Holiday-Season Calendar Will Test UPS, FedEx and Amazon by Paul Ziobro at Wall Street Journal. “The math leaves little room for error, said Citi transportation analyst Christian Wetherbee. “We think that the set up for the parcel carriers is as tricky as we’ve ever encountered,” Mr. Wetherbee said. “The risk someone gets coal in their stocking seems elevated.” WSJ subs.

 

Costco’s website crashed for several hours over Thanksgiving by Mary Hanbury at Business Insider. “According to data from the outage-tracking website Downdetector, which was shared with Business Insider by the retail aggregate LovetheSales.com, the website was down for at least 16.5 hours…Costco could have missed out on as much as $10.9 million worth of sales.” Read more

 

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Amazon removes Auschwitz-themed holiday decorations, bottle openers and fridge magnets at CNBC. Read more

 

Amazon and Walmart Thought India Would Be Their Next Giant Market. India’s Shopkeepers Would Like to Disagree by Ari Altstedter at Bloomberg via Fortune. “In the heart of New Delhi’s largest wholesale bazaar, merchants who normally compete with each other have united against a common enemy. “Amazon, Flipkart!” one merchant after another shouts into a microphone from a small stage in Sadar Bazaar’s central traffic circle. Some 50 other shopkeepers gathered around shout back in unison: “Go back! Go back!” Read more

 

NBC wants you to shop while watching TV by Peter Holley at Washington Post via My San Antonio. “Midway through the (“Songland”) episode, Ryan Tedder, a Grammy Award-winning singer and producer featured as a judge on the show, tinkered with an eye-catching, illuminated keyboard called Lumi. As Tedder played the instrument, a QR code casually appeared at the bottom of the screen with instructions that read more like commands than suggestions: “Open Camera, Scan Code, Shop Now.” Read more

 

It’s Way Too Easy to Get a .gov Domain Name at Krebs on Security. Read more

 

Etsy CFO Bets Free Shipping Will Give Company an Edge During Holidays by Mark Maurer at Wall Street Journal. “We don’t believe that people wake up in the morning and say, ‘Hey, I want to go shopping for something handcrafted today,’ ” finance chief Rachel Glaser said in an interview. “They wake up saying, ‘I need a gift for my sister’s birthday’ or it’s Christmastime and ‘I need a special gift for a person that I love.’ ” WSJ subs.

 

Amazon plans to hire 200,000 seasonal workers this year, twice as many as last year at GeekWire. Read more

 

Chicago City Council raises minimum wage to $15 by 2021 at Chicago Tribune. “(Mayor) Lightfoot’s plan eliminates exemptions to the minimum wage for other workers, including people with disabilities, youth under 18, agricultural workers and people in transitional employment programs.” Tiered subs.

 

Apple star designer Jony Ive officially leaves company at NY Post. Read more

 

Disgruntled holiday shoppers stuck in 4-hour snarls near popular Charlotte-area mall by Joe Marusak at Charlotte Observer. “Congestion grew so bad Friday evening that police blocked the three entrances into Concord Mills from Concord Mills Boulevard.” Tiered subs.

 

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