Nearly 180 million shoppers spent an average of $301 each over Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, according to an annual survey released Tuesday by the National Retail Federation trade group and data analytics firm Prosper Insights Analytics.
The retail industry saw 105 million shoppers visit stores over the weekend, compared to just 92 million last year. The overall number of online shoppers decreased to around 128 million from 145 million last year.
Matthew Shay, NRF president and CEO, told reporters in a press conference last year that we all enjoy the tradition of buying things in person and in-store shopping as a symbolic kick off to the holiday season.
He said there was general fatigue. People are tired of doing things remotely and on stream. They would like to be together doing those things in person. Nearly 46 percent of U.S. consumers shopped online over the weekend, according to the NRF. The group reported that nearly 44 percent of people shopped at department stores, 39 percent shopped at grocery stores, 32 percent at clothing retailers, 28 percent at electronics stores and 26 percent at discount stores.
According to location analytics firm Placer, Ulta and Sephora saw traffic soar over the weekend. Ulta's foot traffic increased 42 percent from last year, while Sephora's foot traffic increased by about 98 percent, it found. Traffic to discount stores such as T.J. Maxx and Ross went up by more than 30 percent. More shoppers shopped at malls this year compared to last year, but shopping centers are still losing foot traffic compared to 2019 according to Placer. Visits to indoor malls increased by 83 percent from 2020, but fell by 9 percent compared to 2019 according to the firm's early mall traffic data.
The digital sales between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday resulted in a total of $33.9 billion in online spending, down 1.4 percent from last year, according to Adobe Digital Insights. Black Friday online sales fell to $8.9 billion from $9 billion and Thanksgiving Day sales stayed flat from last year, at $5.1 billion.
Patrick Brown, vice president of growth marketing and insights with Adobe, told NBC News that consumers are buying earlier, and they are buying heavier earlier. We think that this is a result of consumers heeding the warnings about outages. The consumer spent $109.8 billion online in November, an increase of about 12 percent from last year, according to Adobe Analytics. The full holiday shopping season is estimated to hit $207 billion, a 10 percent increase from last year, according to Adobe.
The NRF has surveyed 70 percent of consumers who are confident they will find the products and supplies they need, despite the fact that supply chain challenges have dominated the headlines in the last few weeks. They said that they'll find an alternative product even though they may not find their first choice in products.
Greg Maloney, the president and CEO of retail with JLL, said the supply chain thing is somewhat overblown. They are not rushing out to get something unless it is a hot toy or an electronic or something, but beyond that it is not a big deal for a lot of people. Out-of-stock messages are still high. Out-of- stock messages were up 8 percent compared to the week before, according to out-of- stock messages. Out-of- stock messages were up 169 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels through November, according to Adobe.
A combination of the pandemic-driven supply chain slowdowns and higher consumer demand for goods has led retailers to drive down promotions into the holiday shopping season. The average selling price over Black Friday weekend was up 11 percent compared to last year, and the average discount was down 26 percent, according to Salesforce. Shopping cart totals increased even as total transactions decreased as a result of decreased promotions and price inflation. The retail brands saw an average of 8 percent fewer purchases this Black Friday compared to last year, according to shopper analytics firm Bluecore.
More shoppers are turning to new installment payment services to manage their holiday shopping carts, according to Adobe. Use of pay later services saw a 21 percent increase in revenue over the last year, and orders increased by about 1 percent from last year, according to a report on Cyber Monday.
England, a shopper in Scottsville, Virginia, told NBC News that she started her holiday shopping in October this year because she was worried about shipping delays and product shortages.
She said shipping hasn't been a concern because I've done a lot of in-person shopping this year. There is one thing I ordered that I am not sure will get here in time. She has done the majority of her shopping online over the course of the epidemic. She is looking to support local brick- and mortar businesses this holiday season.
I hate crowds but this year I thought it was safer to get some things in person, because I thought it was safer to do so. With the effects of the Pandemic, I wanted to support local businesses even more.