Chris Morse, Head of Merchant Communications, PayPal

 

As everyone comes out of their turkey comas today, we see the hunger shift from stuffing ourselves with pumpkin pie, to stuffing our carts on one of the biggest shopping days of the year: Black Friday. Though early birds have been making holiday purchases since September 30, the deals retailers offer Thanksgiving weekend remain unmatched.

 

Black Friday, and in some instances, Thanksgiving night, has always been synonymous with early mornings, long lines and crazed shoppers, but over the past couple of years people are stepping away from in-store purchasing and shopping from the comfort of their homes. No surprise considering last year we found that one in five adults worldwide prefer to shop online in their pajamas. This year, the trend continues as some discounts were offered as early as a week ago before reaching a crescendo today. Global mobile TPV (total payments volume) for Black Friday have seen significant year-over-year increases since 2012, this year mobile TPV increased 56% (as of 12pm PT today) compared to Black Friday 2013.

 

With numerous devices at the tips of our fingers, it appears people are less willing to venture out into the cold on this shopper's holiday to get deals for the items on their family’s wish-lists—instead they want the deals to come to them and technology is making it easier for people to decide how, when and where they choose to shop. Black Friday purchases ramped up as early as Thursday afternoon 1 p.m. – 2 p.m. PT/4 p.m. – 5 p.m. ET, as some shoppers pulled out their mobile devices even before Thanksgiving dinner, sparing themselves an early morning today. So far, fashion led the way, taking in nearly twice as many dollars spent over mobile as the next highest category, electronics.

 

We’re all for making Holiday shopping easy – shouldn’t the Holidays be about giving cheer and not adding stress? PayPal cannot only help you make your holiday purchases faster and safer, we can also help you save even more as you look for those special deals today.

 

Visit our Holiday Hub for exclusive online deals this Black Friday including:

 

20% off all purchases on Brooks Brothers on Black Friday (with 15% off on Saturday and 10% off on Sunday) Double rewards points at DSW 10% off any purchases at Virgin Mobile, and a whole lot more 

The deals go from now until Christmas, so choose the faster, safer way to pay.

Original author: PayPal-Forward