Stocks from various e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, Wayfair, and Amazon experienced an increase after the successful Black Friday sale.
Black Friday 2023 Breaks Sales Record
According to Adobe Analytics, Black Friday sales increased by up to 7.5% compared to last year, totaling $9.8 billion in the U.S. Meanwhile, online sales for Cyber Weekend jumped by 7.7% or $10.3 billion with Cyber Monday expected to peak at $12.4 billion.
As a result, shares from Etsy closed up to 3% while Wayfair reached about 7%. Amazon's stock rose by 0.6% and Shopify shares closed at around 5%. Reports also showed that this gave the merchants a record of $4.1 billion in sales.
Despite the challenges of inflation, The National Retail Federation expects that sales in November and December will increase by 3% to 4% year over year. Other big tech companies, like TikTok, are also investing in their e-commerce features to take advantage of the seasonal shopping holiday.
Buy-Now-Pay-Later Boosts Sales for E-Commerce
Other consumers have turned to the buy-now-pay-later features which allow them to shop for their wants despite a tight budget. Companies such as Affirm, Klarna, and Afterpay recorded $5.9 billion in sales between November 1 to November 23, as per Adobe. Affirm's shares also closed at around 12% on Monday.
"I think it's both share of checkout, it's more merchants offering it and more consumers choosing it in general," Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski shared during an interview with CNBC. He also added that the company was shocked to see the powerful demand for the buy-now-pay-later services during Black Friday.
Both shoppers and merchants had a full-force experience between the Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend, further boosting the potential of online shopping services.
