Black Friday always makes me think of my dad, who, for years, has spent Thanksgiving circling about half of the Best Buy mailer, strategizing on how he can get to all of the merchandise he wants before the other 100 people waiting in line behind him. He, like thousands of other Americans, have stood in line at electronic retailers for many hours on the morning of Black Friday hoping to score amazing deals on electronics for gifts and for themselves. This year, though, the lines may be significantly shorter, and electronics stores less crowded.

Time Magazine has reported that with the rise of online shopping, especially in the electronics sector, forecasts indicate that electronics retailers might not get as much foot-traffic this holiday season, even on Black Friday. It is predicted that online shopping will increase 3.8% during the holiday season, projecting $469.1 billion in overall sales. Why the shift to online shopping over hitting the store-front? Bill Martin, founder of ShopperTrak says “Some of the traffic decline in the electronics and appliance category can be attributed to consumers going online to research premium-priced purchases or to purchase items at discounted prices.”

Purchasing items online definitely has it’s perks. Not only can you shop around for the best prices more easily, but online shopping makes it easy to check out: no lines, no crowds, no overwhelmed sales associates. And you can do all of your shopping in your pajamas. And now, with free shipping a frequent occurrence, there really is no good reason to hit the store front.

How about you? Will you be scavenging the Thanksgiving Day newspaper inserts for the best Black Friday deals, or will you avoid Black Friday all together and choose to shop online?

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About Lauren Brajczewski

When Lauren isn't busy reporting on Black Friday for BradsDeals, she loves watching Shark Week, baking cupcakes, organizing, watching trash tv, and a finding good deal (of course).

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Tags: black friday, Black Friday deals, Electronics, Holiday Shopping, Online Shopping
This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2012 at 11:24 am and is filed under Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.