Black Friday trends in the US suggest Australian retailers should expect consumers to spend up this year.

Data compiled by Coremetrics found consumers are more likely to be shopping from lists, sticking to budgets and browsing less both online and offline.

Black Friday, the day after US Thanksgiving holiday, data is historically used to benchmark retailings fortunes for the Christmas season. According to Coremetrics, there was a 35% year-on-year increase for the average spend per order in the US.

“What’s most revealing about the results is the change in browsing behaviour. Abnormally high bounce rates and low page views per session is a warning to retail sectors worldwide – consumers want to find what they’re looking for quickly and without having to traipse through irrelevant information and product offers. They’ve got an agenda and they’re going to stick to it, so make their online shopping experience as smooth as possible,” said Kevin Mackin, general manager of Coremetrics Australia New Zealand.

Despite an 18% increase in number of items purchased, consumers were browsing 5.4% less, the number of people leaving a site after viewing a single page spiked by 39.4% and page views per session declined by 30.4%.

“It’s not all bad news though! There’s been a healthy jump in the average amount of money people are willing to spend online which suggests that consumers have adjusted their shopping patterns to the reality of the economic downturn. I’d say, Australian and New Zealand retailers will definitely enjoy a return to higher spending this year but consumers will be thriftier, savvier and on the hunt for a bargain. So, it will come down to retailers being able to offer a superior online shopping experience that makes it easy for consumers to find products, peruse special offers and ‘check out’ quickly,” added Mackin.