Holiday shopping over Thanksgiving weekend hit $27.8 billion, up nearly 22% from last year.
Fully 145 million shoppers hit stores (online and off) between Thursday and Sunday, spending an average of $302.81, according to the National Retail Federation’s Black Friday Weekend survey. Total spending last year was $22.8 billion for the weekend. NRF credits price promotions for driving store traffic up 8% (on Friday) and 13% (on Saturday) this year.
“As expected, retailers offered substantial discounts and savings on Black Friday to bring people into their stores, and consumers held up their end of the bargain by shopping,” said NRF President-CEO Tracy Mullin in a statement. But retailers won’t be “basking in their success. Stores are already warming up for the next four weeks,” Mullin added.
The average consumer has completed only 36% of his holiday shopping; only 7.5% have finished. NRF projects total holiday sales will hit $439.5 billion this year, up 6% from 2004.
Most shoppers (61%) hit discount stores over Thanksgiving weekend; 47% shopped department stores, and 41% shopped specialty stores. Over 27% shopped online, and 59 million consumers were expected to shop online on Cyber Monday.
NRF’s survey of 4,209 consumers, conducted by BIGresearch, found that nearly 50% of shoppers bought clothes or accessories; 47% bought books, CDs, DVDs, videos and video games; and 37% bought electronics, up from 31% last year.
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