Internet custom garment printer Redbubble achieved an unprecedented surge in sales over the busiest period for US retailers, Thanksgiving weekend.
Signalling the traditional start of the US holiday shopping season, Redbubble's gross transaction value (GTV) for Thanksgiving, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, reached $6.36m, up 27.4 per cent from the same period last year.
The company says the figures represent a solid start to the holiday shopping season, which will be longer than last year due to Thanksgiving being earlier, resulting in a greater number of effective shopping days.
Black Friday, also known as the day following Thanksgiving, is the biggest shopping day on the US calendar. The name Black Friday is said to have originated in Philidelphia in 1952 where it was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.
Since 2006, there have been seven reported deaths and 98 injuries throughout the US due to the chaos caused by retail sales on this day.
"Redbubble's Black Friday sales were very strong with year on year growth of 46.9 per cent, but there was some weakening through the rest of the weekend," the company reports. "The US online market as a whole shows growth rates of 16.4 per cent for the Thanksgiving period with Black Friday up 21.6 per cent year on year."
The company's booming sales were also experienced in European countries where GTV growth increased by 76.6 per cent for Germany, 42.8 per cent for France and 68.9 per cent for Spain.
Redbubble says its mobile platform also performed well, experiencing a 64.3 per cent year on year growth in GTV over the weekend.
Redbubble describes itself as a global marketplace for independent designers, allowing them to upload designs for consumers to purchase, printed on garments such as T-shirts, caps and pillowcases. It outsources the printing to partner companies around the world.
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