Black Friday Fizzles With Consumers As Sales Tumble 11%

“The challenge is looking for a new equilibrium, and we just haven’t found it,” he said.

Retail chains have spruced up their websites in recent years, though they’ve struggled to keep pace with Amazon.com Inc. Sales at Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, jumped 46 percent on Saturday and 24 percent on Black Friday, according to ChannelAdvisor Corp. That exceeded total e-commerce growth on those days, the research firm found.

Fuel Costs

Cheaper gasoline prices, meanwhile, are working in the retail industry’s favor. The average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.81 last week, the lowest in four years, according to the automobile group AAA. That’s leaving more money in shoppers’ wallets -- and making it less expensive to take a trip to the mall.

For many shoppers, though, the excitement of Black Friday sales may have simply worn off. Consumers know they can get discounts throughout the holiday season and are adjusting their shopping accordingly, said Simeon Siegel, a New York-based analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc.

“You can’t outsmart the consumer anymore,” he said. “You need to pander to where the consumer wants to shop and when.”