A new milestone has been reached for e-commerce on Black Friday, with consumers spending a record $10.8 billion online, up 10.2% year-over-year, according to Adobe Analytics data.

This is more than double what consumers spent just a few years ago in 2017, when Black Friday drove $5.03 billion in online spend. On Friday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., $11.3 million was spent online every minute, per Adobe Analytics. 

Mastercard SpendingPulse, which measures retail sales across all forms of payment, found that online sales on Black Friday had increased by nearly 15%, but that in-store sales had increased by only 0.7%, for an overall increase of 3.4%, according to The New York Times. 

"The early shopper data from Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, indicate that fewer shoppers went to stores on Black Friday this year than last year," according to Forbes. "The decline is a sign of how the purpose and functionality of stores has changed."

According to retail analytics company RetailNext, which monitors foot traffic in tens of thousands of stores, the decline was 3.2% on Black Friday. (On Saturday, also an important retail date historically, in-store traffic was down by 0.8%.)

Jewelry, electronics and apparel were the top purchases, with discounts playing a role in consumer decisions.

“I think it’s the consumer being mindful about how they’re using their dollar and purchasing power, knowing they have so many choices,” Michelle Meyer, chief economist at the Mastercard Economics Institute told The New York Times. 

She said that in-store spending had been strong going into the holiday weekend, but on Black Friday itself, it was “sluggish.”

Taylor Swift fans flocked to Target for an exclusive merch drop on Black Friday.

“This year, the retail giant teamed up with the 34-year-old pop star to offer a range of special items, including a Black Friday-exclusive version of The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology on vinyl and CD, as well as Swift’s official The Eras Tour book,” according to Billboard.  

Toys were a major growth driver, with online sales up 622% compared to average daily sales in October 2024, according to Adobe. Other growth drivers on Black Friday included jewelry (online sales up 561%), appliances (up 476%), personal care (up 440%), apparel (up 374%), and electronics (up 334%), per Adobe. 

“Shopify, an e-commerce site, reported that it set a new record for its Black Friday sales, which reached $5 billion globally,” according to CNN Business. “The average cart price for U.S. shoppers was about $157, with many looking for products like t-shirts, skincare and vitamins.”

A majority of online shoppers chose to use their mobile devices to shop on Black Friday with 55% of online sales conducted with a mobile device, accounting for $5.9 billion in spending, Adobe Analytics said. This represented a 12.1% increase over a year ago. Other online sales were done on desktop computers and other devices, per USA Today.

“Shoppers are making the most of seasonal deals and enjoying a balance of experiences spending and gifts for all loved ones,” said Steve Sadove, senior advisor for Mastercard, in a news release. “They’re more strategic in their shopping though, prioritizing promotions that they believe hold the greatest value — opening their wallets, but with more intentional distribution.”

NBC Universal could once again be facing class-action privacy lawsuit for allegedly sharing web users' data with Meta Platforms, a federal judge indicated Wednesday.

U.S. District Court Judge Paul Englemayer in New York previously dismissed the privacy case. But in an opinion issued Wednesday, Englemayer said he will reverse course, provided the matter comes before him again.

The legal battle dates to 2022, when Missouri resident Sherhonda Golden claimed in a class-action complaint that NBC violated the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by sharing her video-viewing data with Facebook, via the Meta Pixel analytics tool.

Congress passed that law in 1988, after a Maryland store disclosed the video rental history of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork to a newspaper. The statute prohibits video rental companies from disclosing personally identifiable information about the viewing history of video renters, purchasers and subscribers without their permission.

NBC urged Englemayer to dismiss the case, arguing that Golden wasn't a “subscriber” to Today.com.

But Golden countered that she had subscribed to a Today.com email newsletter, which included links to online videos.

In late September, Engelmayer accepted NBC's argument and dismissed the complaint. Golden appealed that decision to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, but hasn't yet made any substantive arguments to that court.

Soon after Engelmayer dismissed Golden's complaint, the 2nd Circuit ruled in a separate video privacy lawsuit that the term “subscriber” should be interpreted broadly.

“The VPPA is no dinosaur statute,” Circuit Judge Beth Robinson wrote in that case, in an opinion joined by Judges Reena Raggi and Eunice Lee.

“Congress deployed broad language in defining the term 'consumer,' showing it did not intend for the VPPA to gather dust next to our VHS tapes,” the judges added. “Our modern means of consuming content may be different, but the VPPA’s privacy protections remain as robust today as they were in 1988.”

That appellate ruling means that Golden should have been considered a subscriber to NBC, and that her class-action complaint warranted further proceedings, Englemayer essentially said Wednesday.

Golden “alleged that she used her Today.com digital subscription to view videos through its website and mobile application while concurrently logged into her Facebook account, which caused her personal viewing information to be transmitted to NBCU's third-party business partners,” Englemayer wrote.

The complaint “has thus plausibly pled that she is a 'subscriber of goods and services,'" he added.

He said that if the 2nd Circuit sends the case back to him for reconsideration, he will withdraw his earlier decision that granted NBC's dismissal motion. The opinion leaves open the opportunity for NBC to argue that the case should be dismissed for other reasons.

The early morning line on Cyber Week shopping is that sales are topping last year’s, Salesforce reports. 

Thanksgiving produced a 6% increase in global online sales YoY to $33.6 billion.

In the U.S., sales grew by 8% to $8.1 billion, showing that promotional emails may be doing their job. 

As for today -- Black Friday -- global sales should hit $71.5 billion and U.S. sales $17.7 billion as shoppers take advantage of holiday discounts, Salesforce projects. 

“Back in the spring of 2024, nearly two thirds of consumers reported that they were waiting for Cyber Week deals to make splurge purchases,” says Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights, Salesforce: “The sales and order growth over the last few days implies that these shoppers stayed true to their word. This could be the strongest Cyber Week we’ve ever seen.”

A majority of U.S. consumers will shop online between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. EST. This period will account for 42% of all online Black Friday sales. 

On Thursday, mobile drove 72% of global online orders -- a 3% increase YoY -- and 80% of all online traffic, a 1% hike YoY.

Social media drove 13% of mobile traffic and 11% of ecommerce visitor volume.

Mobile wallet usage increased 41% globally YoY and 40% in the U.S. on Thanksgiving.

On another front, early data showed that 20% holiday purchases are being influenced by AI and agents.

Inflation seems somewhat tamed, with average global selling prices rising by only 2% YoY on Thanksgiving, one of the smallest increases since 2022.

The top verticals in terms of growth worldwide? They were:

• Home dining, art, and décor — 39%
• Makeup — 22%
• Health & beauty — 21%

The U.S. results were slightly different:

• Home appliances, dining, furniture — 20%
• General footwear & handbags — 18%
• Food & beverages — 14%

The average U.S. discount rates? They are in:

• All health & beauty (including makeup, skincare, and haircare — 38%
• General apparel — 33%
• Home appliances, dining, furniture — 30%

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Mobile shopping hit highs on Thanksgiving Day, reaching 59.5% of all online sales -- representing $3.6 billion in online spending via mobile, up 10.5% year-over-year (YoY), according to data released Friday.

Marketers looking to buy additional media might want to look at mobile purchases, which has become easier to do.

Overall, online sales peaked in the final hours of Thanksgiving Day between 8 PM and 10 PM as the day's holiday festivities wound down.  

Adobe Analytics measured the impact of marketing investments this season. For affiliates and partners -- which includes social-media influencers -- the share of traffic to retail sites came in at 19.3%, growing 7.8% YoY.

On Thanksgiving, Adobe’s data showed influencers converting shoppers defined as individuals making a purchase after seeing influencer content were eight times more than social media overall. 

Consumers overall spent $6.1 billion online Thanksgiving Day 2024 -- up 8.8% year-over-year (YoY).

Adobe Analytics released the data Friday based on ecommerce transactions of more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, 100 million SKUs and 18 product categories.

The data shows the increase was driven by discounts across the board. In toys, for instance, discounts peaked at 27.2%.

Shoppers also took advantage of 26.5% discounts in electronics, 22.6% in apparel, 19.2% in appliances, 19.1% in sporting goods and 16.3% in furniture.

Captify tracked clicks at retail stores the week before Black Friday to get a sense of where consumers would shop. Walmart experienced the biggest increase in searches among major brands for Black Friday sales, up 38% YoY.

Kohl’s had the next-highest increase at more than 30% YoY, followed by Target with 14%, Best Buy at 12%, JC Penney at 9% and Amazon at 5%.

Overall, searches for early Black Friday deals from October 1 through November 20 have totaled 87,300. 

That has not been the case in the past month. Captify U.S. data shows Target took the lead on retail sites for brand searches including the term “Black Friday.”

Target drove 57% of the searches compared with 2023 data, while Best Buy drove 31%, followed by Amazon at 25%, and Walmart at 10%. Kohl's did not show any change in search traffic. 

Target results was boosted by deep cuts that came on Sunday, as well as early doorbusters and deals at Best Buy that attracted shopper interest, according to the data. 

Categories also varied. These changes in search represent the difference in searches for the category compared with the week before Black Friday last year -- November 11, 2023 through November 17, 2023.

The Tools & Home improvement category jumped 73% compared with YoY data. Apps & Games at 40% followed, Health & Household at 33%, Kitchen & Dining at 26%, Camera & Photo at 21%, Office product at 15%, Art Crafts & Sewing at 14%, Beauty & Personal Care at 13%, Patio Lawn & Garden at 6% and Electronics at 3%.

The programmatic ecosystem is far from secure, judging by a new study from Pixalate: The Programmatic Ad Seller Misrepresentation Report: Web Traffic. 

Of all ad traffic containing the SupplyChain Object (SCO), 11% failed Pixalate’s SCO verification in Q3 because of unauthorized sellers. 

Moreover, “5% of all desktop and mobile web open programmatic ad impressions are sold by unauthorized ‘direct’ sellers,” the study states,

And, 94% of invalid traffic (IVT), including ad fraud, involved an unauthorized direct seller. 

What all this means is that the digital advertising ecosystem is vulnerable to unauthorized selling despite ads.txt, the tool meant to enable buyers to check whether sellers are authorized by the publisher. 

The findings prove a “critical need for stricter enforcement of ads.txt and SCO verification checks,” the study argues. 

And, they challenge the industry assumption that ads.txt has "secured" digital advertising, it continues. 

In addition to the 11% that failed, 63% of the traffic was verified and 25% suffered other verification failure.  

Pixalate's data science team analyzed 9 billion open programmatic ad impressions containing the OpenRTB SCO during Q3 2024, the study says.  

In addition, the analysis includes “a set of SCO verification checks as defined by Pixalate, utilizing IAB Tech Lab’s ads.txt/app-ads.txt standards, along with SCO data from the OpenRTB bid stream.”

Google on Wednesday urged a federal appellate court to reverse a finding that the Play Store policies violated antitrust law, and to vacate an injunction that would require the company to revamp its app marketplace.

“This case involves an extraordinary attempt by a lone competitor to use the federal judiciary to restructure the day-to-day operations of Google’s app store, Google Play, and to unilaterally reshape markets with consequences for millions of non-parties,” Google writes in an appellate brief filed with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“If not reversed, the injunction and the flawed liability ruling underlying it will directly undercut Google’s efforts to compete against Apple and the iPhone,” Google adds.

The company's argument comes in a battle dating to 2020, when Forniter developer Epic Games brought antitrust suits against both Google and Apple. Epic sued soon after both Google and Apple removed Fornite from their mobile app marketplaces for allegedly attempting to bypass Google and Apple commissions on in-app purchases. (Both Google and Apple charge a commission on purchases made in apps that have been downloaded from Google Play or the App store.)

Epic's suit against Apple went to trial in 2021, and largely resulted in a defeat for Epic. U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Northern District of California, who presided over the non-jury trial, ruled that Epic failed to prove the bulk of its claims. Rogers said in her ruling that Google and Apple compete to distribute apps.

Nearly two years later, Epic's suit against Google went to trial. In that matter, a jury found that Google created or maintained an illegal monopoly in two “markets” -- Android app distribution, and Android in-app billing. The jury also found that Google wrongly tied company's ability to distribute through the Play store to Google's payment system.

Last month, U.S. District Court Judge James Donato in San Francisco, who presided over the Google trial, issued a sweeping injunction that requires Google Play to host other companies' app stores, and give those companies access to Google's library of apps. The injunction also prohibits Google from forcing developers to use its billing system for Play Store apps, among other provisions.

The injunction is currently stayed.

Google is now asking the 9th Circuit to reverse jury's verdict and to permanently vacate the injunction.

Among other arguments, Google says the jury's verdict should be thrown out because it's inconsistent with Rogers' ruling in Epic's suit against Apple.

Donato wrongly “allowed Epic to argue that Google and Apple do not compete in app distribution and in-app billing markets, even though Epic already fully litigated and lost that issue in its case against Apple,” Google argues.

The company adds that Rogers' ruling should have precluded Epic from pursuing a “litigation do-over.”

Google also says the injunction should be set aside for numerous reasons, including that it's too broad.

“At the request of Epic -- a single, self-interested competitor -- the court adopted a sweeping, nationwide injunction fundamentally altering Google’s relationships with Play’s users, developers, and other partners throughout the United States,” Google argues.

The 9th Circuit is expected to hear arguments in the case on February 3.

Tech firm PubMatic has formed a partnership with Intuit’s SMB MediaLabs, a media network, that will provide B2B advertisers with the ability to offer business owners “relevant products and services that best fit their needs,” says Dave Raggio, vice president of Intuit SMB MediaLabs.

Launched in July 2023, Intuit’s SMB MediaLabs is a media network that focus on small and medium-sized businesses. It leverages 36 million identifiers through Intuit QuickBooks, while keeping the underlying customer data secure on Intuit’s platform, it says.

The new arrangement provides buyers and publishers with premium, brand-safe inventory across CTV, video and mobile. In addition, SMB MediaLabs advertisers will be able to connect to these data segments directly via PubMatic’s self-service Convert platform.

This will unlock “permissioned self-service capabilities” for customers, says Raggio.

“Our partnership with Intuit SMB MediaLabs is an incredible opportunity to bolster PubMatic’s support of the B2B market,” says Tim Rogers, vice president of commerce media at PubMatic. “We will connect marketers to small and medium businesses wherever they engage with the open internet across PubMatic’s premium omnichannel inventory.”

PubMatic cites a forecast published by eMarketers that the digital B2B ad spend will top $18.3 billion in the U.S. this year. In addition, it shows that nearly 90% of businesses are SMBs. 

T-Mobile on Monday urged a federal appeals court to vacate a $90 million fine imposed by the Federal Communications Commission for sharing wireless customers' location data.

The fine is “arbitrary and capricious” and violates “fundamental principles of fair notice,” the company writes in an appellate brief filed with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Among other arguments, T-Mobile contends that the FCC hadn't previously said all location data should be treated as “customary proprietary network information,” and therefore subject to confidentiality rules. Instead, according to T-Mobile, the FCC only required carriers to keep location data confidential when it was directly tied to voice services -- essentially meaning that the data would reveal customers' locations when they were talking on the telephone.

The location data at the center of the fine came from “location-based services” connected to non-voice services -- such as the Life Alert program, which sends medical help to people, or roadside assistance company AAA -- T-Mobile says.

“The FCC cannot impose massive penalties on past conduct based on a newly announced interpretation” of confidentiality requirements, T-Mobile wrote.

T-Mobile also argues the fine violated its right to a trial by jury, arguing that a jury trial would “prevent the FCC from improperly acting as rule-maker, investigator, prosecutor, judge, and jury.”

The carrier's argument comes in response to the Federal Communications Commission's April order, issued by a 3-2 vote, fining the carrier -- as well as Verizon and AT&T -- for selling access to customers geolocation data to aggregators that resold the information to outside companies. (The FCC fined AT&T $57 million and Verizon $47 million. T-Mobile's $92 million fine included a $12 million fine for Sprint, which merged with T-Mobile in 2020. AT&T and Verizon are also challenging the fines, and made arguments similar to T-Mobile's.)

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr -- recently tapped by president-elect Donald Trump to lead the agency -- dissented from the decision to fine the carriers. He argued in a written dissent that the Federal Trade Commission was the appropriate agency to police the privacy practices at issue.

Carr also agreed with the carriers that the location data at the center of the fines hadn't previously been subject to confidentiality rules.

“Today’s FCC orders rest on a newfound definition of customer proprietary network information ... that finds no support in the Communications Act or FCC precedent,” he stated in April. “And without providing advance notice of the new legal duties expected of carriers (to the extent we could adopt those new duties at all), the FCC retroactively announces eye-popping forfeitures totaling nearly $200,000,000. These actions are inconsistent with the law and basic fairness.”

The FCC initially proposed the fines in 2020 -- around two years after it emerged that a Missouri sheriff used geolocation data provided by Securus Technology to track other law enforcement officers, without court orders. Securus obtained the location data from the phone carriers. Around one year later, Vice Media's Motherboard detailed how a journalist was able to pay a “bounty hunter” $300 to track a phone's location to a neighborhood in Queens.

The major U.S. carriers have said they no longer sell location data.

T-Mobile’s holiday campaign is facing some unexpected complications from the ad industry’s self-regulating body.

Last week, the Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) National Advertiser Division (NAD) issued a decision asking T-Mobile to drop or modify its recent ad starring Snoop Dogg and Patrick Mahomes. The 30-second broadcast ad debuted across major networks earlier this month.

At issue in The “Top Three Plays of the Day” adis its  characterization of T-Mobile’s holiday promotional deal promising a free iPhone16 Pro and 20% off monthly service costs compared to its competitors in the wireless space.

Competing wireless brand AT&T brought the challenge through the NAD’s fast-track SWIFT process for single-issue advertising cases. The NAD cited  the line: “Now at T-Mobile.com get the new iPhone 16 Pro ON US and families can save 20% every month versus the other big guys.”

In issuing its ruling, NAD said it determined the ad “reasonably conveys the message that consumers who choose T-Mobile will receive both a free iPhone 16 Pro and save 20% versus AT&T and Verizon,” and that this message wasn’t properly qualified by on-screen disclosures. NAD recommended T-Mobile either discontinue the ad or modify it to provide adequate disclosure about the material conditions related to each offer.

T-Mobile expressed disappointment with the decision in its advertiser statement, the NAD reported in a release announcing the decision, and plans to appeal the decision to the National Advertising Review Board (NARB).

“As we said in our campaign, T-Mobile customers get best in class benefits and savings, like a free iPhone 16 Pro on Go5G Next, and families can save 20% every month on their plan with streaming services compared to similar plans and streaming from AT&T and Verizon,” T-Mobile told Marketing Daily. “We’re appealing the NAD’s decision as we clearly laid out how customers can make the most of these savings and benefits and decide what’s best for them.”

The decision follows a similar ruling this past August  filed by T-Mobile against AT&T, through the SWIFT process. The NAD asked AT&T to discontinue or modify its advertising claim that “Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) is currently available to AT&T consumers.”