With the COVID-19 pandemic slowly drifting away in our rearview mirrors, it’s no surprise that in-store traffic was on the uptick this Black Friday. Bloomberg reported a rise in in-store shoppers up 2.9% from 2021, and the National Retail Federation predicted 67% of Black Friday shoppers would go out to do their shopping in-person. This resulted in unsurpassed sales numbers across the board, with TikTok fueling consumer spending, driven by a largely millennial demographic.

Most analysts said traffic was brisk in brick-and-mortar stores, but the chaos of Black Friday with people camping out, long lines, and fights over the hottest product trends may be a thing of the past. BeautyMatter rounded up the most noteworthy statistics across the holiday shopping season.

Thanksgiving:

• Thanksgiving Day saw a record-breaking $5.29 billion being spent, 2.9% up from the previous year. Adobe Analytics disclosed that this is almost double the average $2 to $3 billion shoppers will spend online on a typical day of the year.

Black Friday:

• Adobe Analytics data proclaimed that online shoppers in the US spent a record $9.12 billion during Black Friday.
• Due to people holding out for Black Friday to do their shopping, online spending rose 2.3%, according to Adobe Analytics. A massive 48% of digital purchases were made through mobile devices.
• E-commerce platform Shopify reported that at its peak at 12:01pm EST, merchants saw sales of $3.5 million per minute collectively.
• Unsurprisingly, TikTok had a great effect on Black Friday shopping, with people posting hauls and wishlists on the app. The hashtag #blackfriday2022 had 247.5 million views on the app (at time of writing), while #blackfridaydeals had a whopping 819.9 million views.
• Curbside pickup, popularized by the pandemic, was used in 19% of all online orders in November.
• Salesforce’s data uncovered that, in the US, Apple Pay has seen a 58% boost as a payment method, while credit cards have declined by 12%.
• Orders using BNPL rose by 78% the week of November 19 to November 25 compared to the prior week, according to Adobe, with overall revenue from BNPL rising 81% during the same period.

Cyber Monday:

• Adobe Analytics expects 2022 Cyber Monday sales to bring in $11.6 billion, almost a billion more than last year's $10.7 billion.
• Preliminary data released by Adobe at 6pm EST showed that consumers had spent $6.3 billion that day.
• Adobe later confirmed sales on Cyber Monday were up 20% compared to $9.42 billion in 2019.
• US consumers spent $35.27 billion online across the Cyber 5-day weekend.

Beauty: 

• Klarna found that across the beauty and health sector, skincare, and haircare rose the most in popularity among US shoppers.
• During Black Friday week, Klarna reports that hair mists were up by 420%, body yogurts by 332%, and shaving gels by 315% from the week prior, making them the most popular among any other beauty and health products.
• The share of purchases made with Klarna by age saw the most popular age group being millennials, making up 53% of purchases. Gen X weren’t too far behind, making up 27%, while Gen Z represented 16% and baby boomers 6%.
• Klarna also identified that the top five beauty items and treatments featured on holiday wish lists are: massages (38%), skincare (38%), fragrance (36%), hairdresser vouchers (31%), and makeup (29%).
• Bluecore revealed that retailers saw an 11% increase in day-of Black Friday site traffic, with customers shopping beauty and health categories rising by 26%.
• Bluecore also discovered how the vast number of beauty-related products on offer has led to the average shopper viewing a product, in the health and beauty sector, 14 times before buying it. It appears shoppers are doing their research and reading reviews before making their minds up.
• Shopify uncovered that the US, UK, and Canada were the top-selling countries where shoppers purchased from this Black Friday, while the top cities were London, Los Angeles, and New York.