Shoppers intend to spend more over the Thanksgiving holiday shopping weekend, and more than half of that will be spent online, a survey finds.
An independent research company commissioned by Deloitte LLP surveyed 1,223 adults earlier this month and found shoppers plan to spend an average of $400 each during the five days of Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday among online, stores and catalogs, up 8.4% from $369 last year. Consumers say they’ll spend slightly more than half (51%) of their money online, down from last year, when they said they’d spend 59% of their money online.
Among all consumers surveyed, 87% who plan to shop at some point between Thursday and Monday say they plan to shop online.
While retailers have been hyping online Black Friday deals, Cyber Monday reigns supreme when it comes to e-commerce. 74% of the consumers surveyed say they will shop online on the Monday after Thanksgiving, compared with 55% who say they’ll do so on Black Friday, according to Deloitte.
Retailers that offer online deals on Thanksgiving will not be left out, as 31% of shoppers surveyed say they will shop online that day, compared with 22% who plan to shop in stores. Last year, web sales on Thanksgiving totaled $1.73 billion, an increase of 25.3% from Thanksgiving 2014, according to Adobe Digital.
A just-released report from the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights and Analytics also finds that Thanksgiving weekend shopping should be higher than a year ago. The report, which surveyed more than 7,200 shoppers at the beginning of November, shows that 137.4 million U.S. consumers will buy something either online or in-store from Thursday through Sunday, up 1.2% from 135.8 million last year. The NRF and Prosper’s data shows that slightly more shoppers36.3% this year compared to 34.0% last yearwill shop on Cyber Monday.
The Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday period is critical for online retailers to get right. Consumers made 47% of the purchases they would make online in November and December by Cyber Monday’s close, according to digital measurement firm comScore Inc.
To build loyalty among its holiday shoppers, staffers at web-only pet supplies retailer Chewy.com are in the midst of handwriting nearly 2 million holiday cards that will go out after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. “There’s nothing in the card about coming back to shop, no coupon,” CEO Ryan Cohen says. “It’s just wishing you and your family, including your pets obviously, a happy and safe holiday and New Year. It goes a long way in creating loyalty and deep bonds with our customers.” Cohen says Chewy.com sent nearly 500,000 handwritten cards last holiday season, and expects to send 4 million next year. He says Chewy.com sold $423 million online in 2015 and is on pace to generate $880 million in revenue in 2016.
In October, the NRF said nonstore sales are expected to increase 7-10% year over year to as much as $117 billion during the holiday season of November and December. Nonstore sales are those made mostly online but include sales via phone and catalog. Online holiday sales increased 9% during the 2015 holiday season, beating the NRF’s 6-8%projection.
Deloitte in October projected e-commerce sales to reach $96 to $98 billion during the holiday season, which it defines as November through January, a 17-19% increase from the same period in 2015. Total holiday sales (excluding motor vehicles and gasoline) are forecast to exceed $1 trillion, up 3.6-4.0% compared with the year-ago period, Deloitte says.
Research firm eMarketer Inc. projects e-commerce will increase 17.2% to $94.71 billion this holiday season, which it defines as November and December, and account for 10.7% of total sales during that period. Total retail sales will increase 3.3% over the same period last year to $884.50 billion, eMarketer says.
A different study done by Prosper for Visa found that online shoppers are going to spend 18% more online during the peak holiday shopping season this year, compared to 16% more last year. Visa did not specify which dates that encompasses. Prosper surveyed around 4,700 shoppers in August about their holiday shopping plans, finding that 47% will do at least half of their holiday shopping online this year, up from 46% last year.
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