Long Holiday Shopping Weekend Brings Modest Brick-And-Mortar Bump, Big Gains For E-Commerce

As retailers prepared for the Black Friday onslaught last week, Zakiyah Caldwell Burroughs was feeling optimistic about sales prospects for Jot Plan Repeat, a stationery store she and her sister own at the Cherry Hill Mall in South Jersey.

“Within the last month or so, we’ve already started to see an uptick in sales,” she said Wednesday during a pause in the action. “I know sales throughout the year have been slower for a lot of businesses, so we’re just hoping that the Christmas season is really good for everybody.”

Going into the traditional kickoff of the holiday shopping season, hopes were high that spending would grow between 2.5% and 3.5% compared to 2023, despite a shorter-than-usual shopping season, political fallout from the presidential election and consumers feeling the pinch of tighter wallets.

Early results indicate those predictions were spot on. But traditional retailers saw a more modest sales increase, while online sales smashed all previous records. 

Black Friday sales grew by 3.4% this year, with e-commerce retailers enjoying much stronger gains than brick-and-mortar stores, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse data. Online sales increased 14.6%, while in-person sales only grew by 0.7%.

This year’s Small Business Saturday also exceeded 2023. Downtown and shopping mall traffic were up 4.8% and 9.2%, respectively, real estate software company MRI reported.

Cyber Monday gave another boost to online retailers. Spending on that day increased roughly 7% year-over-year, or about $900M, according to data compiled by Adobe.

That made Monday the biggest online shopping day of all time.

Malls fared well among traditional retail outlets, especially for foot traffic. Activity at U.S. shopping malls on Friday was 8% higher than in 2023, MRI said. That metric was still down 16.9% from the day after Thanksgiving in 2019, before the pandemic turbocharged the e-commerce revolution.

PREIT, the Pennsylvania-based company that owns the Cherry Hill Mall, hasn’t shared its numbers for the post-Thanksgiving shopping season yet.

But Simon Property Group, the largest shopping mall operator in the U.S., reported that Black Friday traffic at its locations was up 5.9% year-over-year. Those properties did even better over the weekend, when traffic was up 6.3% and 8.2% on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

“On Black Friday and throughout the weekend, we saw even more evidence of what we already knew: Malls are thriving,” Simon CEO David Simon said in a statement. “Popular brands throughout our portfolio reported double-digit sales increases over the weekend compared to last year. Coast to coast, we saw lines prior to opening and throughout the day at many of our centers across the country.”

Yet the national disconnect between brick-and-mortar sales and traffic indicated that Black Friday is about more than just shopping. The chance to see Christmas decorations and sit on Santa Claus’ lap was also a big draw.

“It’s kind of magical,” said Lisa Wolstromer, the senior marketing director at the Cherry Hill Mall and three other PREIT properties. “There’s an energy in the mall.”

That sentiment was echoed by R.J. Hottovy, head of analytical research at Placer.ai, which found that Black Friday visits to indoor malls were up 8.2% from last year and 3.6% from 2019.

“The role of malls continues to evolve, with many seeing stronger year-over-year visitation trends than their individual tenants,” he said in a statement. “Successful strategies to position malls as destinations through entertainment, decor, and unique experiences have resonated with consumers, highlighting the importance of offering more than just shopping.”

In a market dominated by e-commerce, many retailers at the Cherry Hill Mall have adopted a “clicks-to-bricks” model, Wolstromer said. Shoppers often order items online and have them shipped to stores at the mall. That interface also works in reverse.

“The role of the store is to provide a place for product discovery, the chance to touch and feel products, engage with the brand, or identify the ideal size or version of a product,” Ethan Chernofsky, senior vice president of marketing at Placer.ai, said in a statement. “While the visit is still critical, the actual transaction might still be made online.”

Some segments of the retail industry had a particularly weak Black Friday. Traffic at department stores was down 5.2% year-over-year and 30.2% since 2019, Pacer.ai reported. Electronics stores experienced a similar trend. Traffic at those outlets was down 16.5% year-over-year and 41.1% since 2019.

Discount and dollar stores saw traffic drop 3% year-over-year, but the metric was still up 12.4% from Black Friday 2019, indicating that shoppers are still looking for bargains.

“Shoppers remain focused on value but also prioritize unique and differentiated products, as evidenced by strong year-over-year visitation trends at off-price retailers like HomeGoods, Marshalls, and T.J. Maxx,” Hottovy said.