ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Eighty-six percent of consumers are expected to shop in the period beginning Thanksgiving Day and ending on Cyber Monday with overall consumer spend to reach $108.5 billion, according to an ICSC Thanksgiving Weekend Intentions survey. On average, shoppers are projected to spend an average of $491 over the course of the weekend.
More than half of U.S. consumers will shop online during that time, with online retail sales approaching one-third of all sales from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, according to Numerator, a data and tech company. This is the first time data has indicted that more than half of consumers’ method of purchasing is online. Last year, 47% of households shopped online during Cyber Weekend, up from 42% in 2019 and 38% in 2018.
Amazon is poised to capture more than half of all Cyber Weekend dollars spent online. On Cyber Weekend 2020, Amazon accounted for 14% of all sales and 47.1% of online sales. By comparison, Walmart accounted for 10.8% of all sales and 8.1% of online sales, and Target took in 4.2% of all sales and 5.2% of online sales. Millennials are likely to lead other generations in online shopping for Cyber Weekend 2021. More than one-third (36%) of this generation’s Cyber Weekend spend was made online in 2020, the highest among all age demographics.
Looking at the entire holiday season, four out of five consumers shop online for holiday gifts—and most shop on Amazon, according to a report by Jungle Scout. While 78% of consumers shop online for gifts, 46% shop only online. Sixty-seven percent of all consumers shop on Amazon for holiday gifts, followed by 48% who shop on Walmart.com and 34% for all other websites. Although most consumers shop on Amazon, more holiday shoppers search for specific brands on Walmart.com (48%) than on Amazon (38%).
The Jungle Scout report also found that organic and social influence is driving holiday gift ideas and purchases. On Amazon, customers prefer organic listings over any type of ad. Forty-seven percent of consumers who source gift ideas from social media will get inspiration from influencers. Additionally, many U.S. consumers look forward to “treating themselves” in 2022, and 68% of Americans say they want to have more fun in 2022, and 46% are already making 2022 travel plans.
A report from TikTok found that 72% of consumers find shopping on social media platforms convenient, and 78% of consumers are open to purchasing a product on a social media platform. Another 72% think there should be more opportunities to shop on social media channels.