Your browser does not support the audio tag. This feature is powered by text-to-speech technology. Want to see it on more articles? Give your feedback below or email product@barrons.com. Early Black Friday sales data is pointing to a healthy start to the holiday shopping season—at least online. Despite industry expectations for slowing retail sales growth overall this year, Adobe said Black Friday online sales in the U.S. reached a record $9.8 billion on Black Friday, a 7.5% year-over-year increase.