RWRetailWire
Back to Discussions
DISCUSSION

Black Friday is too late

Written by RetailWire Staff

Photo: Target

For one segment of shoppers, the holiday season starts early and they'll be spending more than people who wait for Black Friday to start buying their gifts.

Those who start shopping before Thanksgiving for their holiday presents will spend 28 percent or $370 more on average than customers who start their shopping later, according to a study by Deloitte. The report states that 60 percent of its 4,036 respondents fell into the early shopper category. And the earlier the start, the bigger the spend — the 39 percent of customers planning to start shopping before the end of October spend $200+ more on average than those starting to shop in November before Black Friday. 

The findings highlight how shifts in the holiday shopping landscape over the past few years have caused Black Friday to become less of a focal point for customers.

Last year, a PwC survey indicated a significant drop in how many U.S. shoppers intended to shop on Black Friday (only 35 percent in 2017, down from 51 percent in 2016 and 59 percent in 2015).

Holiday spending has also intensified beyond Black Friday and Thanksgiving and into the weeks immediately before Christmas. In addition to the growing popularity of Cyber Monday, there are three December retail holidays that some say have gained traction. Green Monday, the date when retailers begin deep discounting to prepare for the holiday, Free Shipping Day and Panic Saturday on December 23rd, which is the actual biggest shopping day of the year.

But there are more factors at play than a general move away from Black Friday that might impact the 2018 holiday selling season. The closing of Toys “R” Us earlier this year added some big question marks after predictions of which retailers will emerge on top.

Discussion Thread0