Placer.ai: Super Saturday traffic rivals Black Friday numbers
In a boon for retailers, Super Saturday (the last Saturday before Christmas) and the day before Christmas Eve ("Christmas Eve Eve" ) landed on the same day this year.
According to foot traffic analytics firm Placer.ai, clothing retailers, department stores and shopping centers saw visits on Saturday, Dec. 23, nearly rival Black Friday traffic, coming in at just 6.6%, 7.2% and 8.7% lower, respectively, than on the day after Thanksgiving. One category, superstores, saw a large spike in Super Saturday visits at 16.9% higher than Black Friday traffic.
A recent report from Customer Growth Partners estimated $47 billion total in sales on Super Saturday, a sizable increase from the $42.6 billion in sales on Black Friday.
“Inflation, early holiday deals and changing consumer behavior all left their mark on Q4 2023’s brick-and-mortar visitation patterns,” said Placer.ai content writer Lila Margalit in a blog post. “But as this year’s remarkable Super Saturday turnout highlights, shifting patterns also present retailers with new ways to win at the holiday shopping game.”
Grocery stores saw success on Super Saturday as well. The sector’s visits on Dec. 23 increased over Turkey Wednesday (Nov. 22) this year, rising to 93.1% year-to-date (YTD) from 90.4% YTD on the day before Thanksgiving when shoppers look for last-minute food items.
However, the biggest rise in traffic happened for the discount and dollar chain sector. Super Saturday visits increased 144.3% for the sector, compared to a modest 45.8% YTD increase in traffic on Turkey Wednesday.
“Comparing this year’s Super Saturday visit spikes to those seen in recent years shows that all the analyzed categories experienced bigger Super Saturday visit spikes this year than they did either in 2022 or pre-pandemic,” added Margalit. “Unsurprisingly, this shift was most pronounced for grocery stores, superstores, and discount and dollar stores – all of which offer a wide array of food items (and in the case of superstores and discount and dollar stores, also plenty of inexpensive gift options).”