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Thanksgiving holiday shopping activity higher than expected reveals survey

Retailers had a robust holiday weekend shopping experience as a survey reveals more than 151 million consumers hit stores online and offline during the Thanksgiving weekend time frame.

December 1, 2015

It was a retailing dream come true this past holiday weekend with more than 151 million consumers shopping at brick-and-mortar stores and online storefronts, a figure much higher than expected earlier in November.

A National Retail Federation (NRF) survey of the Thanksgiving weekend shopping activity, conducted by Prosper Insight & Analytics, notes 136 million consumers planned to do some shopping during the holiday weekend.

"We recognize the Thanksgiving weekend shopping experience is much different than it used to be as just as many people want that unique, exclusive online deal as they do that in-store promotion," said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay, in an announcement. "It is clear that the age-old holiday tradition of heading out to stores with family and friends is now equally matched in the new tradition of looking online for holiday savings opportunities."

The breakdown between brick-and-mortar and e-commerce sites was 102 million and 103 million, respectively, states the NRF, with average spend per consumer hitting just a bit under $300.

"Retail is in the middle of an incredible revolution and evolution," stated Shay.

The biggest shopping day of the weekend was Black Friday with 74.2 million shoppers hitting a store, 34.6 million shopped on turkey day and 46.8 million hit stores on Saturday.

In terms of shoppers’ age, the biggest shopping contingent were the 25 to 34-year-old crowd, which represented 62.1 percent of the shopping mass.

"Holiday shopping started well in advance of Thanksgiving weekend this year, but there's no question people were still incredibly eager to get their hands on the deals that retailers were offering on electronics, apparel, toys and even small appliances," said Prosper Principal Analyst Pam Goodfellow, in the announcement. "The ease of online shopping through mobile devices now lets millions of people research what they want as well as make timely purchases any day of the weekend — a win-win for both retailers and shoppers."

"Millennials have changed the game when it comes to Thanksgiving weekend shopping, making sure they were out early and often over the entire weekend in order to tackle their gift lists as well as their self-gifting lists," added Goodfellow.