Sensormatic: Store traffic down 33.1% in six-week holiday period

Black Friday continued to live up to its reputation as the busiest shopping day despite the pandemic.

That’s according to the annual traffic and behavior trends recap for the 2020 holiday season by Sensormatic Solutions, part of Johnson Controls.  The recap covers the six weeks from the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22, through Saturday, Jan. 2.

In-store traffic for the full six week period was down 33.1% year-over-year. Sensormatic originally predicted it would be down from 22% to 25% year-over-year. The company said it noticed a season-long shift of in-store traffic toward days that were perceived to be less busy

“Although major shopping events, like Black Friday and Super Saturday, maintained their position atop the list of busiest shopping days, they actually saw the biggest drops in year-over-year shopper traffic,” said Amy Shulman, global head professional services, Sensormatic Solutions. “In contrast, we saw traffic trends only down 27% in the weeks preceding the holidays, confirming that consumers were shopping earlier this season than in past years.”

As originally predicted by Sensormatic Solutions, the busiest shopper traffic days in stores were Friday, November 27 (Black Friday), Saturday, December 19 (Super Saturday) and Saturday, December 26. 

Sensormatic also originally predicted that the 10 busiest shopping days would account for 34.2% of all holiday traffic compared to 46.5% in 2019. Altogether, the actual 2020 busiest shopping days accounted for 35.2% of the total season’s brick-and-mortar traffic.

Here is Senormatic’s list of the actual busiest shopping days in the U.S. during the six-week holiday period:

1. Friday, November 27 – Black Friday
2. Saturday, December 19 – Super Saturday
3. Saturday, December 26 – Day after Christmas, also known as Boxing Day
4. Saturday, December 12 – Second Saturday in December
5. Wednesday, December 23 – Wednesday before Christmas
6. Saturday, November 28 – Saturday after Thanksgiving
7. Tuesday, December 22 – Tuesday before Christmas
8. Monday, December 21 – Monday before Christmas
9. Saturday, December 5 – First Saturday in December
10. Saturday, January 2 – First Saturday in January