Black Friday, Internet | featured news

If you’ve shopped for a TV in the past couple of years, chances are you’ve heard of Vizio. After all, the company, a decade old this year, has been holding its own in the US TV market against global giants like Samsung and Sony while at the same time expanding into new products like PCs and tablets. Impressive no doubt, even more so considering the company does all this with just 400 employees. At $3 billion in annual revenue, this translates to about $7.5 million per head, a number that’s over ten times that of Sony. That’s an amazing degree of productivity, especially for a company that has in no way taken the easy path of shipping me-too boxes, but instead has been one of the most progressive in adopting new technologies for the TV market such as new interfaces and smart TV.

With so much consumption going on, giving back can easily be overlooked. The 92nd Street Y in New York hopes to change that with its social media movement #GivingTuesday. #GivingTuesday is not a charity drive to benefit one cause but a call for many organizations and individuals to give to those less fortunate during this time of year, say its organizers. Retailers around the country will host donation drives in stores on Tuesday. Meanwhile, participants with an online presence are soliciting charitable contributions from their social media followers.

Black Friday retail sales online this year topped $1 billion for the first time ever as more consumers used the Internet do their early holiday shopping, comScore Inc said on Sunday.

Groupon Inc sold more than 650,000 holiday deals between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, an increase of 500 percent compared with last year, Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mason said in a blog post on Wednesday.

Online sales rose 24.3% this Black Friday, reflecting heavy investment by mainline retailers to get more traction on the Web.

Shoppers who skipped the crowds on Black Friday gave online merchants a 16 percent spike in revenue, according to data released Saturday....