Millions of Americans left their Thanksgiving meals to hit stores across the country in an annual shopping ritual, but the crowds on early Black Friday morning were thinner than years past at some malls and shopping districts.

Thinner crowds could spell problems for retailers, some of whom entered the holidays warning of uneven consumer demand and elevated levels of inventory. But the smaller crowds could also reflect deeper changes in how Americans shop: Increasingly, they are spending more online and making fewer visits to stores.

Driving up to a nearly empty parking lot at a Wal-Mart in Houston on Friday morning, Dora Rodriguez, 39 years old, stopped her silver hatchback in surprise and called out her window to another shopper: "Excuse me, the Black Friday sale—it's ended already?"

Inside the store, there was no jostling for the television Ms. Rodriguez had come to find, no crowds in the toy aisle, no long lines. At times, employees seemed to outnumber customers. "It's not Black Friday anymore," one worker told some shoppers asking about sales prices. "It's Black Thursday. All the sales were on Thursday."

For the first time, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. made the majority of its Black Friday deals available online in the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning—some 15 hours before its stores opened. Retailers have historically used deep discounts on a limited supply of big-ticket items to lure shoppers to their physical stores, thus the name "door-buster." Instead of lining up outside stores for hours to get those deals, Wal-Mart shoppers this year were able to purchase items like a $125 Roku 32-inch TV from the comfort of their homes.

So many shoppers visited Wal-Mart's website when the door-busters went on sale early Thursday that the site was overloaded and some shoppers struggled to check out. Walmart.com did "slow down for a little bit when customers were checking out," Steve Bratspies, the company's new chief merchant, said in an interview. "The vast majority had no issues."

Analysts interpreted the move by Wal-Mart and other maneuvers by Target Corp. and J.C. Penney Co. as an attempt to win shoppers back from Amazon.com Inc., whose product discounts and shipping promotions are eating away at retail profits. Purchases made on Amazon account for about a third of U.S. online retail sales, according to the trade publication Internet Retailer.

Christian Benincasa, a store associate at Finish Line in Crossgates Mall in Albany, N.Y., was working his third consecutive Black Friday and said traffic hasn't been nearly as intense as years past. Folding sweatshirts near the entrance and gesturing around the store, where a handful of shoppers milled about, he said "it's mostly been like this all morning." As of 10 a.m. Friday, the athletic retailer hadn't sold out of its main draw, the newly released Nike Jordan Aqua 8 shoe.

And shoppers aren't waiting for Black Friday to spend. E-commerce sales were up 51% by midday on Thursday, compared with the same period a year ago, according to ChannelAdvisor, an e-commerce software company. Amazon.com's sales rose 31%, eBay increased 11% and Google Shopping was up nearly 60%, according to ChannelAdvisor.

Thirty-six percent of consumers said they planned to shop online only during this year's holiday season, up from 19% who said so last year, according to the investment bank Jefferies. By comparison, just 18% of consumers said they planned to shop only in physical stores this year, down from 35% who said so a year ago.

"The competition is led by Amazon and that factors into how other retailers set their prices," said Paul Trussell, a Deutsche Bank analyst.

U.S. online retail sales during the holiday season are expected to total $95.5 billion, an 11% increase over last year, according to Forrester. By contrast, the National Retail Federation expects total holiday retail sales, including in-store and online, to grow 3.7%.

Despite the growing abundance of online deals, shoppers still visited stores Thursday evening and early Friday.

"I don't like shopping online," said Jennifer Pacheco, who was looking for sweaters and coats at a J.C. Penney store in Manhattan with her daughter early Friday morning. "I like to touch, feel and see what I'm buying."

Shoppers crammed a Best Buy Co. store in Willow Grove, Pa., Thursday evening, blocking the aisles with trolleys full of flat-screen TVs and speaker systems. It didn't take long for the gridlock to melt away, though, after some of the store's door-buster deals were depleted. TVs and cellphones were moving fast, while quirkier gadgets, like a Star Wars themed toaster, still filled shelves.

Alberto Ramirez, a cash-register technician from Philadelphia, said he had his hands full at work during the past week as stores demanded urgent service ahead of the holidays. But he still found time to pick up a $140 LG sound bar Thursday night after seeing it on sale at Best Buy. "It's pretty much the convenience of getting it right here and now," Mr. Ramirez said, adding that he spends most of the rest of the year shopping online.

Heading into the weekend, the NRF predicted that 135.8 million people would shop over the Thanksgiving weekend, a slight increase over the 133.7 million who did so in 2014. Any growth would be a reversal from last year, when retail spending over the Thanksgiving weekend fell 11%.

Cheryl Selby's job Thursday night was to guard her family's shopping basket at a Best Buy while relatives moved through the store picking up items on sale. She said she would have preferred not to shop on Thanksgiving. "I resent it," she said. "I wish more stores would open tomorrow."

Most retailers resisted the urge to extend their store hours deeper into Thanksgiving, a tactic that has shifted spending from one day to the other but hasn't produced higher overall sales. J.C. Penney stores opened at 3 p.m. on Thanksgiving, two hours earlier than last year, but Target didn't open its stores until 6 p.m. and Wal-Mart's door-busters weren't available inside its stores until 6 p.m., despite being also offered online.

Like many traditional retailers, Amazon has also shifted its promotions earlier into November as surveys show that Americans start their holiday shopping long before Black Friday. It started its Black Friday event, consisting of eight days of holiday deals, on Friday, Nov. 20, nearly a week earlier than last year.

Julia Miller, a software developer from Niskayuna, N.Y., said that in an ideal world she'd like to have all of her holiday shopping done by Black Friday. She does a lot of online shopping, particularly for games, jewelry and makeup, but turned up to Crossgates Mall in Albany, N.Y., on Friday with her daughter Erin to shop at Victoria's Secret and Hollister. "Clothes, clothes I like to touch," she said.

In years past, when her children were younger, she would turn to Amazon mostly for their wish lists, but Ms. Miller said since her children have gotten older and started favoring clothes over toys, she hasn't felt the need to turn to Amazon as much. "Plus, more stores have more websites nowadays," she said. One favorite is Ulta, the beauty retailer, where she bought makeup online on Thursday and who she said will even wrap and ship gifts to relatives who live far away. "You don't even have to go to UPS anymore."

Consumer Rebecca Nolen first tried to shop at Walmart.com but found she could only purchase the computerized sewing machine she wanted in-store. So she hurried in early Friday morning to a Houston Wal-Mart, expecting to battle other shoppers for the Brother brand machine—on sale for $99, down from $149.97. "I've been Black Friday shopping before where I had to be there when the door opened and people were lined up," she said as she carted her new sewing machine to the car. "It isn't like that today."

Sarah Nassauer, Drew FitzGerald, Sara Germano and Erin Ailworth contributed to this article

 

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 27, 2015 11:35 ET (16:35 GMT)

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