Mobile Payments Surge on "Black Friday"

A huge surge in mobile payments seems to have occurred on the U.S. "Black Friday," the day after the Thanksgiving holiday that historically marks the start of the Christmas and holiday shopping season. 

Somehow, it doesn't seem surprising. IBM analysts estimate that mobile shopping activity rose about 21 percent on Black Friday, year over year. But mobile purchases also surged on Thanksgiving day itself. 

At some point, reporters and analysts will stop noting such occurrences, and that's when we'll know mobile commerce (shopping and payments) simply has become another form of "e-commerce," like online shopping, which largely and justifiably is considered unremarkable these days. 

But some would say there is little correlation between the size of sales on Black Friday and overall sales during the crucial Christmas and holiday shopping season. So there's even more reason not to get worked up over the size of Black Friday sales. It is not actually a very consistent predictor of ultimate seasonal sales volume, as it turns out.