Consumers to Do More Online Shopping Thanksgiving Weekend, Says CEA
Roughly 103 million Americans will shop online between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday this year, a bump of 6.1 million shoppers over 2013, said CEA’s "2014 Pre-Black Friday Report."
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In total, 143 million U.S. consumers plan to shop from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, with 89 million U.S. adults, or 36 percent, planning to buy consumer technology products, CEA said in a news release Wednesday, versus 31 percent in 2013. Black Friday will be the most popular day for in-store and online shopping during the period, with 24 percent of those surveyed planning to shop that day, up 4 percentage points from last year. But the number of consumers planning to shop in stores on Black Friday -- 28 percent -- is flat with last year and 5 percentage points down from 2012, CEA said. Roughly one in five respondents plans to shop on Cyber Monday, up 2 percentage points year over year, it said.
Consumers will use mobile devices more than ever to learn about sales and discounts during the weekend, and retailers are increasingly focused on delivering that information to consumers, said Shawn DuBravac, CEA director-research. “Mobile use is strongly influencing the consumer’s shifting shopping patterns around Thanksgiving weekend.” Of those planning to use mobile devices over the shopping period, 77 percent plan to use their mobile devices to compare prices and get more information about products before making purchases, and 62 percent will compare prices of products in-store to help them purchase gifts, CEA said. Some 65 percent will hunt for special offers or discounts from retailers, according to the report, and 62 percent will search for coupons on their devices.
Mobile pay registered in the CEA survey for the first time this year, and 18 percent of consumers using a mobile device for shopping expected to pay for a purchase in-store using a service such as Apple Pay or Google Wallet, CEA said. The top five tech products consumers plan to purchase over the weekend are tablets, TVs, notebook PCs, smartphones and video game consoles, it said. Tablets repeat as tech leaders under planned purchases, while TVs advanced to second from fourth place, smartphones moved up 6 percentage points and videogame consoles slipped two places, it said. The study was administered via phone to a random national sample of 1,013 U.S. adults Nov. 13-16.