Retail’s Busiest Holiday Shopping Days, 2024

In many ways, it’s a case of “round up the usual suspects”: The busiest shopping days of the 2024 holiday season in the United States are expected to be Black Friday (Nov. 29), Super Saturday (Dec. 21) and the Monday before Christmas (Dec. 23). That’s this year’s prediction from Sensormatic Solutions, a retail traffic consulting and analytics group. But there is some variation to these rankings from year to year; this year, for example, features a “late” Thanksgiving (Nov. 28), which compresses the holiday calendar a bit.

“Reviewing historical traffic insights data is crucial for retailers to best strategize staffing, stock and promotions during peak days of the 2024 holiday season,” said Grant Gustafson, head of retail consulting and analytics at Sensormatic Solutions, whose team predicts the season’s top busiest days at the Johnson Controls unit. “Physical stores will play a critical role once again this holiday season, providing inspiration and convenience.

“While we don’t see signs of significant risk to the anticipated flat traffic, we expect the compressed holiday season to have an impact on total shopping visits, as consumers will have fewer opportunities to shop. By leveraging traffic data, retailers can tailor their offerings and create memorable experiences that meet their shoppers’ expectations, such as personalized promotions and optimized store layouts.”

In the United States, the top 10 busiest shopping days account for approximately 30%-40% of all holiday retail traffic. Sensormatic Solutions predicts U.S. in-store traffic will be relatively flat, down no more than 3% year-over-year. Thus far, traffic has been down 2.6% on average compared to 2023.

Based on Sensormatic Solutions traffic data, the organization predicts that the 10 busiest shopping days in the U.S. will be:

1. Friday, Nov. 29 – Black Friday
2. Saturday, Dec. 21 – Super Saturday
3. Monday, Dec. 23 – Monday Before Christmas
4. Sunday, Dec. 22 – Sunday before Christmas
5. Saturday, Dec. 14 – Second Saturday before Christmas
6. Saturday, Nov. 30 – Saturday after Black Friday
7. Thursday, Dec. 26 – Boxing Day
8. Saturday, Dec. 7 – Third Saturday before Christmas
9. Saturday, Dec. 28 – Saturday after Christmas
10. Friday, Dec. 20 – Friday before Christmas

Click here for more from the Sensormatic study, including details on the busiest holiday shopping days in 17 other countries around the globe.