Black Friday (retail) Origins

The term "Black Friday" originated in Philadelphia in the 1960s. Police officers used the term to describe the large crowds of people who would descend on the city on the day after Thanksgiving, looking for deals at local stores. The term quickly caught on and spread to other parts of the country.

In the 1980s, retailers began to use the term "Black Friday" to promote their own sales events. This helped to make the day even more popular with shoppers, and it soon became one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Today, Black Friday is a major shopping holiday in the United States. Retailers offer deep discounts on a wide variety of merchandise, and shoppers often camp out in front of stores overnight in order to be the first ones inside. Black Friday can be a chaotic and stressful experience, but it can also be a great way to save money on holiday gifts.

In recent years, Black Friday has expanded beyond the United States. Retailers in other countries, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, now offer their own Black Friday sales events. And as online shopping continues to grow in popularity, Black Friday is becoming a global shopping holiday.

Black Friday 2022 eCommerce Stats

Black Friday 2022 was a record-breaking year for e-commerce. According to Adobe Analytics, online sales reached $9.12 billion, an increase of 2.3% over 2021. This was driven by a number of factors, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which led more consumers to shop online, and the increasing popularity of online marketplaces, such as Amazon and eBay.

The most popular categories for Black Friday 2022 were electronics, toys, and home goods. Electronics sales reached $2.5 billion, up 10% from 2021. Toys sales reached $1.2 billion, up 15% from 2021. And home goods sales reached $1 billion, up 12% from 2021.

Mobile devices were the most popular way to shop for Black Friday 2022. A record 48% of all e-commerce sales were made on smartphones (versus 44% in 2021). This was likely due to the fact that more people were shopping from home and on the go.

Overall, Black Friday 2022 was a successful year for e-commerce. Online sales reached a record high, and consumers were more likely to shop on mobile devices. This trend is likely to continue in the years to come.

Citizen Science & Research

A crowd-sourced virtual super computer may sound outlandish or based out of science fiction, but it is fiction no more. Meet Folding@home, created by Dr. Vijay Pande’s lab at Stanford University. The setup reads a lot like how bitcoin mining works, though, this is under the guise of "for the greater good" citizen science. Sorry MacOSX users, maybe your machine is just not cut out for this type of work. Windows OS is in the lead for active CPUs and GPUs. I am skeptical about all the bandwidth (millions of teraflops) this virtual computer needs. Someone is paying for that bandwidth, is it you?

On the other side of data, John Hopkins University released a newly updated dashboard that tracks COVID-19 cases in rich detail by county.

Progressive Profiling

Progressive profiling is a technique for collecting information about website visitors over time. This information can be used to improve the visitor experience, personalize marketing messages, and make better business decisions.

There are many benefits to using progressive profiling, including:

• Improved visitor experience: Progressive profiling can help to improve the visitor experience by providing them with more relevant content and offers. For example, if a visitor has previously shown an interest in a particular product, you can show them more information about that product on subsequent visits.
• Personalized marketing messages: Progressive profiling can be used to personalize marketing messages to each individual visitor. This can help to increase engagement and conversion rates. For example, you can send email marketing messages that are tailored to the visitor's interests and needs.
• Better business decisions: Progressive profiling can be used to make better business decisions by providing you with more information about your customers. For example, you can use progressive profiling data to segment your customer base, identify trends, and develop new products and services.

There are many vendors that offer progressive profiling solutions, including:

• Marketo
• Salesforce
• Adobe
• IBM
• Oracle

These vendors offer a variety of features and pricing options, so you can choose the solution that best meets your needs.

Here are some additional tips for using progressive profiling effectively:

• Start with a clear goal in mind. What do you want to achieve with progressive profiling? Do you want to improve the visitor experience, personalize marketing messages, or make better business decisions?
• Collect the right information. The information you collect should be relevant to your goals. For example, if you want to improve the visitor experience, you might collect information about their interests and needs.
• Use the information wisely. Don't just collect information for the sake of collecting it. Use the information you collect to improve the visitor experience, personalize marketing messages, or make better business decisions.
• Get consent. Make sure you get consent from visitors before collecting their information. This will help to build trust and ensure that visitors feel comfortable sharing their information with you.

By following these tips, you can use progressive profiling to improve the visitor experience, personalize marketing messages, and make better business decisions.