Where Did Everyone Shop This Black Friday?

We wrapped up a massive Black Friday this week, and I wanted to see which app saw the most growth. I'd normally focus the analysis on the Friday, but as I'm sure you've noticed, everything started early this year. I can think of at least 5 reasons why, but that's a whole other thing...

To get a better insight into growth, I analyzed what I think is now the new normal--Black Friday week, which started on Monday 11/22 and ended on Monday 11/29, and I ranked the most downloaded shopping apps by store + combined.

I'm focusing this on the U.S. because Black Friday is mostly a U.S. "holiday", and some of these apps are only available in the U.S.

There's a lot to look at in this table, so here's my quick take:

• Amazon was the most downloaded shopping app this Black Friday week, adding more than 800,000 new users in the U.S.
• Walmart was right behind it, adding nearly 700,000 new users in the U.S., which is a slightly faster pace than normal.
• Android users chose Walmart over Amazon, the exact opposite of what we see on the App Store. Walmart may have spent more on ads there.
• There's growing interest in Buy Now Pay Later apps, a trend we've seen growing steadily over the last two years. Klarna is the clear winner in that race.
• Shop continued to be the go-to tool for package tracking, which is great for Shopify because it offers shopping in it. I think they have a lot of work to put in before that part of the app takes off, but the base is there.

Together, the top 10 most downloaded shopping apps in the U.S. saw 4.6 million downloads during the week.

This was an intense and somewhat overwhelming Black Friday season. Tons of emails, lots of push notifications, and many eager sellers. I expect next year to be even worse as more shopping ends up in-app. You've been warned...