Thanksgiving weekend, which has long since been one of the busiest sales weekends of the year, has been a strong one this year. According to a survey by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics, as reported by Diamond World, 154 million consumers bought products over the weekend, up from 151 million shoppers in 2015.
“It was a strong weekend for retailers, but an even better weekend for consumers, who took advantage of some really incredible deals”, NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay, said. “In fact, over one third of shoppers said 100% of their purchases were on sale”.
The average spending per person over Thanksgiving weekend totaled $289.19 – down from $299.60 last year. 74% of total purchases were for gifts and valued an average of $214.13. 44% of consumers shopped online and 40% shopped in-store. Black Friday was the most popular day to shop online with a 1.3% rise to 74%. 75% in-store shoppers also chose to shop on Black Friday – up 3.4% from 2015.
Among those who shopped in store, 51% shopped at department stores, and 28% shopped at clothing or accessories stores. Some of the most popular gifts purchased over the weekend included clothing or clothing accessories (50%) and gift cards (20%).
According to preliminary numbers from various sources, consumer spending was down on several categories, including a 20% drop in jewelry. Total performance from November 1 to November 22 showed that consumers spent less on jewelry – $490 versus $528 year-on-year – a 7% drop.
According the same sources, Amazon offered the deepest average discount on Black Friday than any major US retailer, and jewelry accounted for more Amazon Black Friday deals than other category, with about 1,700 products discounted.
