NRF: Holiday weekend brings big in-store and online shoppers; online has edge

Huge numbers of shoppers feasted on deals over Thanksgiving weekend, but how and when Americans did so has forever changed, as online activity exceeded store visits.

Retailers such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Macy’s spoke of well executed promotional strategies that leveraged their physical and digital presence and those insights were validated by data from the National Retail Federation’s Thanksgiving Weekend Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.

More than 151 million people said they shopped either in stores and/or online over the weekend, according to a National Retail Federation (NRF) survey of more than 4,000 shoppers conducted on Friday and Saturday. That figure far exceeded the 136 million people who said they intended to shop over the weekend when NRF conducted a similar survey in mid-November. Most notably, 103 million people said they shopped online compared to 102 million who said they shopped in stores.

“We recognize the Thanksgiving weekend shopping experience is much different than it used to be as just as many people want that unique, exclusive online deal as they do that in-store promotion,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. “It is clear that the age-old holiday tradition of heading out to stores with family and friends is now equally matched in the new tradition of looking online for holiday savings opportunities.”

NRF said the findings from this year’s survey were not comparable to a similar survey conducted last year due to a change in methodology.

Average spending per person totaled roughly $300, with $230 of that amount going towards gifts, according to NRF. Spending was highest among younger shoppers, with those between the ages of 25 and 34 indicating they spent an average of $428 on holiday purchases.

Although more stores are open on Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday remains the dominant day for shopping activity. Of those who shopped in stores over the weekend, 73% (74.2 million) said they shopped on Black Friday. By comparison, 45.9% (46.8 million) shopped on Saturday and 34% (34.6 million) shopped on Thanksgiving Day. Black Friday was also the most popular day for online bargain hunting with 73.1% (75.3 million) shopping online on Friday, compared to 39.8% (41 million) who shopped online on Thanksgiving Day.

More than half (53.8%) of 18-24 year olds and six in 10 (62.1%) 25-34 year olds said they shopped in stores over the weekend, compared to the 41.6% of other adults surveyed, and 57% of both age groups said they shopped online at some point, compared to 42% of average adults polled.

“Holiday shopping started well in advance of Thanksgiving weekend this year, but there’s no question that people were still incredibly eager to get their hands on the deals that retailers were offering on electronics, apparel, toys and even small appliances,” saidPam Goodfellow, the principal analysts with Prosper Insights and Analytics, the firm that conducted the survey on behalf of NRF. “The ease of online shopping through mobile devices now lets millions of people research what they want as well as make timely purchases any day of the weekend – a win-win for both retailers and shoppers.”

Smartphone and tablet devices served as their own channel for holiday shoppers this year. According to the survey, 56.7% of smartphone owners used their phone to research products, purchase holiday items, check in-store availability and other mobile shopping activities while 57.7% of tablet owners used their device to browse holiday deals and purchase items.