U.S. Market Flash | Record 190 Million Consumers Shop Over Thanksgiving Weekend

• Nearly 190 million consumers shopped in-store, online or both over the five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, a 14% increase over last year’s 166 million, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics.
• Shoppers spent an average of $362 over the five-day period, 16% more than last year’s $313 average.
• In-store sales figures for Thanksgiving weekend will be released after the Christmas season, but early estimates from Fiserv indicate they are up by 4.2% over last year.
• CBRE Research estimates that online spending totaled $24.6 billion, up by 18.5% from the same holiday weekend in 2018, based on data from Adobe Analytics.
• Top spending categories included apparel, toys, electronics, books and other media, and gift cards, according to NRF.

Traffic Trends

• NRF reports that 124 million consumers shopped in-store; 142 million shopped online, and 75.7 million did both over the Thanksgiving weekend.
• As predicted in CBRE’s 2020 Retail Market Outlook, this holiday shopping season reflects the growing and influential buying power of younger consumers, who are driving traffic back to brick-and-mortar stores. 87% of weekend shoppers surveyed by NRF were under the age of 25 versus 69% in 2018. Additionally, 61% of shoppers between 18 and 24 years old shopped in-store compared with only 45% in 2018.
• While in-store shopper traffic was up year-over-year on Thanksgiving Day, it was down on Black Friday. Bad weather in some regions may have curtailed Black Friday shopping trips, contributing to the 93.2 million e-commerce shoppers on Black Friday and topping Cyber Monday online shoppers for the first time.
• CBRE conducted a proprietary survey over Thanksgiving weekend at 14 of the U.S. malls and large-format retail centers that it manages and found that roughly two-thirds of them reported higher foot traffic on Black Friday and Saturday than last year. Traffic measurements included a combination of vehicle counts, shopper counts and firsthand assessments by center management.

Thanksgiving Weekend Shopping Days Blurring

• A relatively short holiday shopping season this year is reducing shopping time to just 26 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, as noted in CBRE’s 2019 Holiday Trends Guide.
• The key Thanksgiving shopping days, deals and promotions were extended this year, with Black Friday deals extending through the five-day weekend and Cyber Monday deals starting sooner.
• Thanksgiving Day online sales—65% of them originating on smartphones—reached a record $4.2 billion, surpassing the $4 billion mark for the first time, according to Adobe Analytics. Black Friday online sales reached $7.4 billion; Small Business Saturday totaled $3.4 billion; and a new record was set on Cyber Monday with sales of $9.4 billion, up 19% over last year.

Integrated Cross Channel Retail Experience

• Retailers are engaging customers seamlessly with cross-channel strategies that combine technology, promotional communications, better store experiences and easier delivery options.
• Retailers drove considerable traffic to stores through buy-online/ship-to-store services, creating opportunities for higher customer conversion. According to ICSC, 29% of all Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday shoppers bought goods using click-and-collect or buy-online/ship-to-store options. Of these, 70% bought additional items when picking up the merchandise in-store.
• The most successful retailers this holiday shopping season are converging online and offline buying and providing greater brand engagement that reaches all generations across all channels.