“Super Saturday” Looks to Live Up to Its Name

Nearly 142 million U.S. consumers plan to shop on the last Saturday before Christmas, the latest survey from the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics has found. That’s up significantly from the last time Super Saturday fell on Dec. 23, when 126 million consumers were expected to shop on that day in 2017.

With Super Saturday taking place only two days before the Christmas holiday this year, more consumers are planning to purchase last-minute gifts and other holiday items in-person. Approximately 53 million (37 percent) Super Saturday shoppers expect they will shop exclusively in stores this year, up from about 44 million (28 percent) last year, and 58 million (41 percent) plan to shop both online and in stores. Around 31 million (22 percent) plan to shop exclusively online.

As of early December, holiday shoppers have picked up about half (49 percent) the items on their lists. For those who still have more than half of their shopping remaining, over one-third (36 percent) say they are still figuring out what to buy. And consumers may also be waiting for the best deals. In November, 85 percent of Thanksgiving weekend shoppers said they expected the deals during the rest of the holiday season to be the same or better than Thanksgiving weekend.

Popular destinations where consumers will finish their shopping include online (49 percent), department stores (38 percent), discount stores (28 percent), clothing and accessories stores (26 percent) and grocery stores (19 percent).

The survey asked just under 8000 adult consumers about their holiday shopping plans. It was conducted Dec. 1-6 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points.

Overall, the NRF expects holiday spending will reach record levels during November and December and will grow between 3 percent and 4 percent over 2022, totaling $957.3 billion to $966.6 billion. That’s up from last year’s holiday sales of $929.5 billion.

Click here for more from the Super Saturday survey.