NRF: Nearly 148 million consumers plan to shop on Super Saturday 

Consumers still have plenty of holiday shopping to do.

An estimated 147.8 million U.S. consumers expected to shop online and in-store on Super Saturday, Dec. 21, according to the annual survey released Tuesday by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics. That compares with the 189.6 million unique shoppers over the full five-day Thanksgiving weekend.

As of early December, 86% of holiday consumers had started shopping and they had completed 52% of their purchasing for the season. Last year at the same point, 88% of consumers had started and had completed 58% of their holiday purchases on average. More than half (56%) of holiday shoppers plan to purchase their last gift during the week before Christmas, and 62%  are expected to shop on Super Saturday.

Top gift purchases so far included clothing (49%), toys (31%), gift cards (28%), books and other media (27%) and electronics (24%). A quarter of shoppers (25%) plan to give “gifts of experience,” like tickets to a concert or sporting event. Gifts of experience are most popular among younger shoppers, given by 36% of those 18-34.

• Shopping does not end with Christmas. The survey found that 68%  of holiday consumers will likely shop the week after Christmas (Dec. 26 through Jan. 1). They plan to take advantage of post-holiday sales and promotions (49%) and use gift cards (27% ). Younger consumers ages 18-24 are the most likely (84%) to shop the week after Christmas.

• More than half of shoppers (55%) say they will return or exchange any unwanted gifts or holiday items within the first month after receiving them. The vast majority (80% ) prefer to make returns and exchanges in stores, and 74% say they are likely to purchase something else while returning or exchanging an unwanted gift.

NRF defines the holiday season as Nov. 1 through Dec. 31 and has forecast that sales will total between $727.9 and $730.7 billion.