Top 10 Shopping Apps Had A Strong Black Friday Showing

The nation’s top 10 shopping apps had a strong showing in Apple’s App Store during the Black Friday shopping weekend, with the combined apps adding half a million first-time users.

According to market research firm Sensor Tower, the shopping app saw 16.3 percent growth compared to Black Friday of 2017. Overall, new shopping app installs on the platform increased 9 percent year over year to around 1.8 million.

According to Sensor Tower estimates, Amazon led as the most installed shopping app, holding the title for the second year in a row. Walmart was a close second, posting more of a year-over-year growth rate. Amazon added around 115,000 new users on Black Friday, which was up 11.7 percent from last year. Walmart had 95,000 new installs of its shopping app, but was up 39.7 percent on a year-over-year basis. Target saw new app installs increase 3.3 percent to around 62,000. Sensor Tower noted that Best Buy’s app install base grew by 34.5 percent year over year, adding around 39,000 new users, compared to 29,000 in 2017. Overall, new downloads of the top 10 shopping apps were up 24.7 percent compared to last year’s Black Friday.

Black Friday sales soared this weekend, with more Americans choosing to skip the crowds and do the majority of their holiday shopping online. Reuters reported that online sales rose more than 23 percent, hitting over $6 billion on Black Friday, according to data from Adobe Analytics. On Thanksgiving, sales grew an estimated 28 percent to reach $3.7 billion.

The news was less positive for brick-and-mortar stores, with preliminary data from analytics firm RetailNext showing that traffic and sales fell for the fourth consecutive year. Brick-and-mortar sales declined 4 percent to 7 percent over the two days, while traffic fell 5 percent to 9 percent.

Not only did eCommerce get a boost, but data also showed that consumers are getting more comfortable making purchases — even large ones — on their mobile devices, with Thanksgiving becoming the first day this year to see $1 billion in sales on smartphones.