Most US consumers plan to spend big bucks on Black Friday
Nearly 90% of Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers in the US plan to spend more than $50 across the two shopping holidays, while two-thirds expect to spend over $100 on fashion and apparel and over $200 on electronics. Strategy and marketing consultancy Simon-Kucher & Partners surveyed 1,021 US consumers in October and November to examine consumer habits and attitudes towards the very popular bargain and holiday shopping days (taking place on November 29 and December 2 this year).
The survey found that US consumers still view Black Friday/Cyber Monday as the best time to snag the biggest deals of the year, with 75% of respondents saying so. Amazon Prime Day was a distant second, with only 8% saying it was the best day to get deals.
Overall, 80% said they plan to buy something during either Black Friday or Cyber Monday, while nearly half expect to buy something on both days.
“We still see that Black Friday shoppers are more likely to seek deals in-store over online, which is likely because they’ve become accustomed to chasing after doorbuster deals (think higher-ticket items such as TVs),” Hubert Paul, director at Simon-Kucher, said.
“Retailers should continue to headline these offers to drive traffic to their stores, and then focus on enticing shoppers to buy more once they’re there. Retailers should then lead with online promotional deals on Cyber Monday as nearly two-thirds of respondents associated that day with online deals.”
Though some stores try to build anticipation for the sale a month or more in advance, 40% of consumers said they don’t think about Black Friday until one or two weeks before, while a quarter wait until the week of the sales holiday to start their shopping plans.
There are two popular approaches to shopping on “deal” days. While 60% of Black Friday shoppers said they will browse through offerings to find the best deals, whatever they may be, 50% said they will shop based on a predetermined list to purchase specific products.
The survey found that women are more likely to shop based on where the best deals can be found. When men were asked where they would shop for fashion products, the top answer was brick-and-mortar stores (22%), while the top answer for women was “wherever the best deal is” (21%).
Gen Z and baby boomers were more likely (20%) to be deal hunters than millennials and Gen X (12-15%), according to the Simon-Kucher report. Age wasn’t much of a factor in terms of how much people planned to spend, with 85-90% across all age groups planning to spend at least $50, with a sweet spot of between $100 to $200.
