Survey: Don’t count out Black Friday and Cyber Monday just yet

New data from e-commerce platform Shopify suggests strong consumer interest in a major traditional holiday shopping event.

According to Shopify’s annual Black Friday/Cyber Monday Weekend Shopping Predictions, 67% of U.S. respondents plan to shop during Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend (in 2020. Close to half (49%) plan to shop online only during the four-day weekend (Nov.27-30), with 48% planning to shop both online and in-store and only 3% planning to shop in-store only. 

Interestingly, the youngest respondents (ages 18-34) are likely to be the weekend’s biggest participants. Eighty-five percent of respondents in this age range plan to shop during the event, and will spend the most money on average ($824 USD). About three-quarters (76%) of respondents age 35-54 plan to participate and spend an average of $689 USD. Forty-three percent of respondents age 55 and older plan to participate and spend an average of $456 USD.

On average, respondents plan to spend $686 USD over the long weekend, which is over $100 more (23%) than respondents planned to spend in 2019 ($559 USD). Top planned purchase categories include apparel and accessories (68%), electronics and computers (48%), and toys and games (47%).

Other recent Shopify research indicates retailers and consumers are not waiting until after Thanksgiving to begin holiday preparations:

• In early September, more than half (55%) of Shopify’s retailers surveyed indicated that they believed consumers would start their holiday shopping before Black Friday/Cyber Monday this year, prompting brands to start preparing earlier than previous years. 

• One in five U.S. shoppers (20%) recently surveyed by Shopify said they have already started looking for Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals.

Shopify surveyed roughly 500 U.S. consumers as part of a global study.