Black Friday Statistics Shows a Pareto Effect

Okay, this isn’t quite a Pareto Chart – it’s actually more of a Flateto Chart, but an interesting example nonetheless.

Compete.com recently conducted a survey for the 2010 Holiday Season – Black Friday 2010 and Cyber Monday 2010. the question was which day will shoppers be more active.

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Black Friday 2010

Black Friday, or the day after Thanksgiving (and we all love Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie), has always been known as one of the year’s biggest holiday shopping days. But in the past five years, Cyber Monday, the Monday following Thanksgiving, has become a a serious shopping day for online sales and promotions. Last year, Cyber Monday brought in $887 million in sales compared to $595 million in online spending on Black Friday.

The data compete.com collected is reported below:

black friday statistics shows a pareto

Cyber Monday 2010

According to Compete’s data, 45% of respondents indicated they will do their holiday shopping on Cyber Monday, versus 37% who plan to shop on Black Friday. Interestingly, Black Friday shoppers are planning to spend more money than Cyber Monday shoppers, with Black Friday shoppers averaging an expected $353 and Cyber Monday shoppers averaging an expected $233.

Compete says the increased spend is likely due to more people shopping for high-end items such as electronics, clothing, toys and games on Black Friday than on Cyber Monday. The report shows that 11%, 32% and 23% more people will shop for these items, respectively, on Black Friday than on Cyber Monday.

It’s not surprising that Cyber Monday is becoming more popular than Black Friday, especially if deals are equally as good on both days. Who wants to wait in long lines at 4 am the day after Thanksgiving if they can just click Buy It Now on their computer?