Once again, retailers extended Black Friday events over the month of November and pushed customers to online as well as in-store. Early deals in the season and supply chain challenges caused consumers not to wait around for the typical Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. These actions helped spread out e-commerce spending across the months of October and November. Analysts predict this will put the industry on track for a season to break online shopping records.
With a longer holiday shopping season, consumers have welcomed the flexibility it offers. The majority (84 percent) of holiday shoppers reported they have already started shopping and have completed more than half (52 percent) of their holiday purchases on average.
According to the NRF, Thanksgiving weekend shoppers spent an average of $301.27 on holiday-related purchases such as gifts, décor, apparel and toys. This is down slightly from $311.75 in 2020. As in previous years, most ($215.40) of that amount was spent directly on gifts.
Top gift purchases over the weekend
- Clothing and accessories (bought by 51 percent of those surveyed)
- Toys (32 percent)
- Gift cards/certificates (28 percent)
- Books/music/movies/video games (27 percent)
- Electronics (24 percent).
In-Store
The number of people who shopped in stores increased this year. Retailers saw an increase in foot traffic, with approximately 104.9 million shoppers visiting stores, up from 92.3 million in 2020. Black Friday remained the most popular day for in-store shopping, with 66.5 million shoppers, followed by 51 million shoppers on Small Business Saturday.
Despite more consumers’ willingness to venture out and shop in store, foot traffic hasn’t reached levels from before the pandemic, according to research from Placer.ai, which found visits to be down 8.5% at indoor malls and 9.2% at outdoor malls compared to 2019. T
Sources:
Cyber Monday sales edge down to $10.7B as consumers make a dent in their holiday shopping. 11/30/2021. www.retaildive.com/news/cyber-monday-sales-edge-down-to-107b-as-consumers-make-a-dent-in-their-ho/610699/
Nearly 180 Million Shop Over Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend. 11/30/2021. https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/nearly-180-million-shop-over-thanksgiving-holiday-weekend
Adobe: Consumers spent $10.7 billion on Cyber Monday, $109.8 billion so far this holiday season. 11/30/2021. https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2021/11/30/adobe-consumers-spent-10-8-billion-on-cyber-monday-109-8-billion-so-far-this-holiday-season#gs.i99s6d