Early reports indicate that Black Friday sales were successful despite the economic climate in North America being dismal at the moment. General sales mania can probably be attributed to the massive discounts that were offered across the country.

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and traditionally marks the beginning of holiday spending in the States with consumers heading to retail stores in their droves to score deals.

After scouting sales at various outlets, the NPD Group issued a report from the frontlines that stated: “The overall initial conclusion for Black Friday is that sales and traffic were strong, likely on par with prior years. Consumers were drawn by the appearance of bargains and low prices and electronics are increasingly the primary driver of consumers’ interest in Black Friday shopping.”

The NPD Group will release their weekly data on the 8th of December as well as an annual Black Friday shopping report which will shed more light on Black Friday sales.

Preliminary estimates from Shoppertrack reveal that total sales in the US reached $10.6 billion with retail sales for the day after Thanksgiving up 3 percent from 2007. Consumers also indulged in a bit of internet shopping, helping web shopping traffic to increase 11% from last year (per comparison shopping site PriceGrabber.com).

According to data collected from PriceGrabber and eBay (including PayPal and Shopping.com), the Nintendo Wii was the top product of the day. The most searched-for product on eBay was the Wii, followed by none other than Wii Fit. Eager consumers bought 3 171 Wiis (average price recorded was $349) and 1 059 Wii Fit units (average price recorded was $140) over eBay.

Sources: news.cnet.com, NPD Group