With just 41 days until Christmas, gift buying is on a lot of people’s minds. Black Friday has always been a major day for shopping, but new research suggests Small Business Saturday may be taking over. A new report from Bankrate finds that 56% of Americans will be doing holiday shopping on Black Friday, while 61% plan to shop the day after, on Small Business Saturday.
Bankrate’s research reveals:
- Nearly three-quarters (72%) of shoppers plan to do at least some shopping with a small business this year, up from 65% last year.
- Overall, 81% of shoppers plan to shop on at least one of these big shopping days: Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday.
- Younger generations lead the way on Small Business Saturday shopping, with 72% of millennials and 69% of Gen Z planning to shop that day, compared to 59% of Gen X and 51% of baby boomers.
- More than a third (37%) of holiday shoppers plan to get most of their shopping done in November.
- There’s an even split of shoppers planning to shop in person versus online, 72% for both.
- People prefer brick-and-mortar stores for small businesses, as 51% would shop small in person and 44% would shop small online.
- Older generations are also more likely to shop in person, with 46% of baby boomers and 45% of Gen Xers planning to shop in person, compared to 36% of Gen Z.
- Nearly all (96%) holiday shoppers feel small businesses provide better experiences and customer service than large businesses.
- The top reasons people like to shop small are the shop’s unique gift ideas (56%), customer service (54%) and fostering a sense of community (44%).
Source: Bankrate
Scott's Thoughts:
- Do people still line up before dawn to shop in person on Black Friday? Don’t they know about Amazon?
- I do plan to do some shopping on SBS. However, I admit that more than half of my shopping is online.
- Not to be a Grinch, but who wants to deal with the traffic, crowds, crime and higher prices?