NRF Says 140 Million Shoppers Getting Ready to Shop over Thanksgiving Weekend

(IDEX Online News) – Turkey? Check. Cranberry sauce? Check. Credit cards? Double check. As American shoppers gear up for the Thanksgiving feeding frenzy, many are just as eager to get their fill of bargains over the year’s biggest shopping weekend.

According to NRF’s Thanksgiving Weekend Expectations survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, six in 10 (61.1%) say they will or may shop either Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday, which equates to more than 140.1 million unique shoppers. Expectations are similar to last year’s preliminary survey results of 140.3 million.

Specifically, 67.6 million holiday shoppers (29.5%) say they will shop, down slightly from 69.4 million who planned to do so last year, and 72.5 million (31.6%) who say they will wait and see if the deals are worth it before they decide, up 2 percent over last year’s 71 million “maybe” shoppers.

When it comes to when people will shop, of the 61.1 percent who will or may shop in stores and online over the weekend, 18.3 percent (25.6 million) say they will check out retailers’ Thanksgiving Day deals and shop Thursday, down from the preliminary 23.5 percent last year; 74 percent of those who plan to shop on Thanksgiving Day say they shopped on Thanksgiving Day last year.

Additionally, more than two-thirds (68.2%) will shop on Black Friday (95.5 million), two in five (42.9%) will shop on Saturday (60 million) and one in five (21.6%) will shop on Sunday (30.3 million.)

For the first time NRF asked shoppers about their intentions to shop on Small Business Saturday. The survey found of those shopping on Saturday, nearly three-quarters (72.7%) say they will or may specifically shop for Small Business Saturday.

“More than just a shopping day, Small Business Saturday highlights the millions of entrepreneurs and visionaries who help make retail the dynamic and community-focused industry that it is,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay.

Shay also said, however, that this year could bring a “sea change” owing to consumers’ reliance on extremely deep discounts over the biggest shopping weekend of the year, shifting to a “wait- and-see” mentality around what retailers will be offering on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday.