According to the National Retail Federation, fewer people plan to shop over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, which falls as late as the calendar allows for the first time since 2002. The survey forecasts 140 million people will shop during the four-day period, down from 147 million who planned to do so last year. This year’s survey marked the first time, NRF asked if people plan to shop on Thanksgiving Day. Of those who responded yes, nearly a quarter, or 23.5 percent, plan to on Thanksgiving Day, or 33 million shoppers. (Better a family hike or walk after dinner that day, right?)
According to the survey, Black Friday will be the biggest day of the weekend: 69.1 percent plan to shop on Black Friday, or approximately 97 million shoppers. Additionally 43.8 percent will shop on Saturday (61 million) and 24.2 percent will shop on Sunday (34 million). And, of those who plan to shop on Thanksgiving Day this year, seven in 10 (69.2%) say they shopped online and in stores on Thanksgiving in 2012.
When it comes to the many ways that savvy shoppers plan to keep up with retailers’ holiday promotions, the classic advertising circular wins again: half (49.1%) will scour newspapers for information about upcoming sales events. However, many people are still very much tuned into retailers’ digital news: 33.5 percent will look for special emails from retailers, 27.0 percent will follow retailers’ Web sites and 21.9 percent will scour coupon Web sites to look for deals.
