Nearly 40 Million Consumers Expected to Shop in Stores or Online on Thanksgiving, Says NRF
Some 165.3 million people are likely to shop Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, said a National Retail Federation-Prosper Insights report released Friday. Thanksgiving weekend holiday shopping, now a five-day event, has consumers making purchases “in stores, supporting local small businesses,…
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and online with their mobile devices and computers,” said NRF CEO Matthew Shay. Broken out by day, some 39.6 million consumers are considering shopping on Thanksgiving, 114.6 million on Black Friday, 66.6 million on Small Business Saturday and 33.3 million on Sunday. On Cyber Monday, 68.7 million are expected to shop online for bargains. Younger consumers are significantly more likely to shop over the Thanksgiving weekend, with 88 percent of consumers 18-24 likely to shop and “enjoy the social aspect,” NRF said. Eighty-four percent 25-34 plan to shop over the five-day span vs. 69 percent of holiday shoppers overall. Among those planning to shop, 47 percent expect to begin their shopping in store, 41 percent online, said the retail group. The biggest increase in potential shoppers is expected to be on Thanksgiving, either from customers heading to stores or shopping from phones “while watching football,” said Prosper Executive Vice President-Strategy Phil Rist. Shopping motivators for the Thanksgiving weekend are good deals (65 percent), tradition (28 percent), timing (22 percent) and group activity (17 percent), said the report. Some 26 percent of people who don’t plan to shop that weekend said a sale or discount on an item they want could change their minds. The survey of 7,917 adult consumers was done Oct. 31-Nov. 6 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points.