Thanksgiving Weekend to See 136 Million Shoppers

Over the 2014 Thanksgiving holiday weekend, nearly 134 million Americans went shopping, either in brick-and-mortar stores or online. That number is forecast to rise to nearly 136 million this year.

According to a preliminary Thanksgiving Weekend Survey by the National Retail Federation (NRF), an estimated 135.8 million shoppers (58.7%) definitely will or may shop on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and/or Sunday, similar to the 61.1% who planned to shop last year and more than the 55% of holiday shoppers who said they did shop in stores and online over the weekend in 2014.

NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay said:

The importance of Thanksgiving weekend to both retailers and consumers will never change. However, retailers have already given consumers several good reasons to start their holiday shopping earlier. We suspect early holiday shoppers could still be on the fence about whether or not to try their hand at finding online and in-store deals Thanksgiving weekend. … To make it even easier on holiday shoppers this year, we expect retailers will offer exclusive savings each day of the big weekend, including Thanksgiving and Black Friday-only deals and even extended Cyber Monday promotions throughout the week that follows.

Most shoppers will be checking out the deals on Black Friday (73.5% compared, with 68.2% from NRF’s preliminary survey in 2014). Some 22.3% say they are eagerly anticipating retailers’ Thanksgiving Day deals, compared to 18.3% who said the same thing last year.

The survey also indicated that 77.8% of 18- to 24-year-olds and 77.4%t of 25- to 34-year-olds said they definitely will or may shop online and in stores over the Thanksgiving weekend. The NRF also noted:

Although the entire weekend is seen as one big social experience, Black Friday is expected to be the biggest day for these age groups. Of those millennials who will or may shop over the holiday weekend, the survey found 84.3 percent of 18-24 year olds and 80.2 percent of 25-34 year olds say they will shop on Black Friday. One-quarter (25.4%) of 18-24 year olds will or may shop on Thanksgiving Day and nearly one-third (32.7%) of 25-34 year olds will make room for shopping after turkey and dessert.

Around 90% of millennials are expected to shop online for Cyber Monday deals.

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