Consumers Tipped to Spend 30% Less This Black Friday Than Last Year
The Colling Media market research team conducted a national Snapshot Study to understand probable consumer spending behavior for the upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping days.
The national survey, which was conducted on November 8th and 9th, surveyed 500 adults from throughout the U.S. Question and answer options were randomized to control for potential ordering bias. The accuracy of the results is +/- 3%.
Here are the key findings of the national survey of adults in the U.S.:
When consumers were asked about how likely they were to spend more, less, or the same amount of money on Black Friday as they did last year, 30% said they will probably spend less. Only 19% said they would spend more. More than half (51%) said they would spend the same amount as last year.
Regarding Cyber Monday, consumers provided nearly offsetting opinions. While 26% said they would probably spend less on Cyber Monday than last year, 27% said they would spend more. 47% said they were likely to spend the same amount as last year.
The Colling Media survey also asked consumers how they were likely to learn about Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, deals, and promotions. Far and away, websites were pegged as the most likely, with 76.4% of consumers saying that’s how they would learn about post-Thanksgiving offers. This was followed by email (50%), TV (32.9%), their home mailbox (i.e., flyers and catalogs), (29.5%), and radio (12.5%).
When it comes to how consumers would prefer to learn about Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, 45.5% named websites as their top media. This was followed by email (29.2%), home mailbox (13.4%), TV (10.5%), and radio (1.6%).
INSIGHT
Data from the Colling Media Snapshot Survey paints a picture of Black Friday spending dipping post-Thanksgiving. Cyber Monday spending looks likely to hold its own. Media buyers should pay close attention to consumer preferences relating to how they would prefer to learn about these sales. Consumers most enjoy discovering offers through digital advertising and, at least this time of year, via email marketing automation.