Dive Brief:
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Just over 70% (71%) of Americans plan to do holiday shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend, from Thursday to Sunday, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Black Friday Shopping Study. Just 15% of Americans will shop in stores on Thanksgiving Day.
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And while Black Friday will see some 41% of American shoppers going to stores, Cyber Monday, the day supposedly reserved for online deals, will come in second for shopping in physical retail, with 32% heading to stores that day.
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Overall, 59% will head to a physical store over the weekend, and 30% will be doing so on Saturday or Sunday. Shoppers in stores will spend an average $259, which represents 73% of Thanksgiving weekend spending; 14% of that includes online purchases that will be picked up in store.
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Some 66% will be looking for popular toys, 50% want to get a head start on bargains, 43% shop with family and friends, and 33% take the opportunity, having Friday off, to do more shopping than usual on a weekend, the survey found.
Dive Insight:
Physical stores, no surprise, will be busy over Thanksgiving weekend. Though much has been made of Americans shopping early this year, nearly 60% of shoppers will be heading to stores, according to the ICSC.
And though few are surprised by the notion that Americans will be shopping online, including on their phones any of those days between Thursday and Sunday, the ICSC survey found that a fair number will be in stores on Cyber Monday, too. That’s the day reserved for online deals, ostensibly for shoppers who return to work and shop there in front of their screens.
Thanksgiving Day, though, isn’t much of a busy day for Americans. Those retailers opening that day, mostly in the evening, are likely seeing opening then as a way to launch Black Friday rather than to accrue many sales.
Many retailers have discovered that consumers who do shop on Thanksgiving stick with just one retailer, and a later start time helps solidify that, Jason Goldberg, VP of commerce at digital marketing firm Razorfish and blogger at RetailGeek.com, told Retail Dive.
“So in general, we see retailers relying less on this ‘scarcity’ thing, instead saying ‘We have a good deal for everybody that comes,’” Goldberg said of the Black Friday weekend. “Otherwise, they get a bunch of customers that don’t get that deal, and complain on Facebook. In this world of better transparency, the gimmick promotions are more trouble than they’re worth.”