Content about Friday

As retailers assess what worked and what didn’t in terms of Black Friday promotions and Thanksgiving weekend sales, overall there are a few things that stand out.

ARMONK, N.Y. — U.S. shoppers took advantage of early sales this holiday driving a 39.3% increase in online Thanksgiving day spending while setting the stage for 24.3% online growth on Black Friday, compared with the same period last year, according to the fourth annual IBM Coremetrics Black Friday Benchmark study, which tracks more than a million transactions a day, analyzing terabytes of raw data from 500 retailers nationwide.

WAYNE, N.J. — Toys"R"Us has become the latest retailer to join the trend of starting "Black Friday" on Thanksgiving night. The company announced that, for the first time, it will open its doors at 9 p.m. on Nov. 24. On Nov. 24, customers will also find the company's Thanksgiving-weekend circular, which is filled with more than $12,500 in savings, including doorbusters, Thursday through Saturday discounts and free gift-with-purchase offers, Toys"R'Us said.

News spread quickly last week that Target stores would open at midnight on Black Friday, and that was the idea. The company earned a tremendous amount of media exposure by announcing its earliest ever opening time and joined the ranks of other retailers eager to accommodate the desires of millions of Americans by opening as early as possible on Black Friday.

Prices were cut on 1,500 items at Target.com last Friday as the retailer executed an online-only Black Friday in July promotion. It was the second consecutive year Target conducted the event which, despite the name, pales in comparison to the real Black Friday, which is an operational nightmare and features extreme discounts on prices retailers would rather not get in the habit of offering at other times of the year.