US hits online sales limit at Black Friday

NEW YORK - Agence France-Presse

Black Friday shoppers pour into the a mall for the midnight sale in Oregon. AP photo

U.S. shoppers spent heavily online on the crucial Black Friday shopping day, for the first time topping a billion dollars in online sales in a single day, analysts and retailers said.

The four-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend is the kickoff to the U.S. holiday shopping season, and Black Friday has long been considered the critical day that turns retailers’ books from red to black.

Consumer spending makes up more than two thirds of US economic activity. So the short but busiest consumer sales season has a huge importance to the US economy for the whole year.

This year, online shoppers spent a grand total of $1.042 billion on Friday, surpassing last year’s Black Friday haul by 26 percent, according to the consulting firm Comscore.

A total of 57.3 million Americans visited online retail sites on Black Friday, representing an increase of 18 percent versus a year ago, the firm said. It pointed out that Amazon.com ranked as the most visited online retail site on that day.