The biggest shopping day of the holiday season is approaching, with 66 percent of Americans – an estimated 155.7 million people – planning to or considering taking advantage of Super Saturday sales to complete their holiday gift list, according to an annual survey released the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics.
For the first time in survey history, consumers were asked if they are planning to or considering shopping on Super Saturday, December 17. The survey found that more people said they planned to shop on Super Saturday than those who said they planned to shop over Thanksgiving Weekend, in an earlier survey. When it comes to when consumers are planning to purchase their last holiday gift, more than 38 percent said sometime before December 18, up from 33 percent last year. Although 12 percent of consumers said that they are planning to wait until December 23.
“While many consumers got a head start with holiday shopping by taking advantage of extraordinary sales over Thanksgiving weekend, more shopping and great deals are yet to come,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “We expect retailers will once again be competitive on price and value options in the final stretch, especially on Super Saturday.”
Similar to previous years, only one in 10 have finished their holiday shopping – 24 million people; that means 90 percent of holiday shoppers have gifts and other holiday items still to buy. The average holiday shopper has completed 52.5 percent of their shopping, down from last year’s 53.5 percent.
Those consumers who have completed half or less of their holiday shopping say it is because they are still deciding what to buy (44.7 percent) or waiting for requests from loved ones (27.2 percent). While 27 percent have other financial priorities before December and 25 percent said they are too busy with other activities which have delayed/restricted their time to shop for the holidays.
Also of note, The survey found that 23 percent of consumers are planning to give a gift of experience, such as tickets to a sporting event, cheese of the month club or an adventure outing like whitewater rafting, up from 22 percent last year.
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