Consumers Take Advantage of Black Friday

Retailers hoping for a sales boost on “Black Friday” weekend were not disappointed, according to the findings of a new National Retail Federation (NRF) survey. The third installment of the NRF 2002 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch for NRF, indicates that 75.6 percent of consumers were out shopping on “Black Friday” weekend. (The term “Black Friday” was coined because, traditionally, the day after Thanksgiving was the day that retailers went from being in the red-or in debt-to being “in the black”-or making a profit.) The success of Black Friday is a good sign for fine fragrance marketers who often do the bulk of their business between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

In the last half of November, consumers were hunting for bargains…and buying, with the average person completing an additional 15.0 percent of their holiday shopping from November 14-November 30. To date, the average consumer has completed 38.7 percent of his or her shopping, up from 24.3 percent as reported in the previous installment of the survey (November 16). With only 8.2 percent of consumers reporting they have completed all of their holiday shopping, retailers still have plenty of opportunities to build on their success from “Black Friday” weekend.

“Shoppers did not waste any time this weekend looking for great deals in the wee hours of the morning,” said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. “We attribute this to a combination of factors including six fewer shopping days pushing consumers to shop early, retailers doing an excellent job of advertising great values for consumers, and an early Hanukah.”

The top gifts purchased this weekend included books, CDs, DVDs, videos or video games (41.0%); clothing or clothing accessories (40.4%); toys (34.6 %) and home decor or home-related furnishings (23.7%).

Most of the preferred gift categories performed as expected with one notable exception. Gift cards, as reported in the second installment of the NRF 2002 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, was the third most popular choice with 45.0 percent of consumers planning to purchase them as gifts. However, after “Black Friday” weekend, only 19.0 percent of consumers have reported purchasing gift cards, proving that gift cards could be a very popular last-minute gift option.

Apparel was the top gift choice for women as 45.3 percent chose to buy clothing and clothing accessories. Men went in a different direction with their purchases, as 38.2 percent chose to purchase books, CDs, DVDs, videos or video games.

“Examining how men and women shop during the holiday season usually yields interesting results,” said Phil Rist, Vice President of Strategy for BIGresearch. “Taking a look at shopping patterns, we see that consumers are either taking advantage of bargains to purchase items for themselves or, perhaps, they are subconsciously buying items for others that they would like to receive themselves.”

As expected, discount department stores appear to be faring well, with the majority of consumers (49.0%) making this format a shopping destination. Consumers are also recognizing values in other formats, with 30.6 percent shopping at department stores, 33.2 percent choosing the Internet, 27.2 percent visiting specialty stores, and 16.0% shopping in catalogues.

NRF continues to project an increase of 4.0 percent in holiday retail sales* this year over last year, bringing estimated revenues of $209.3 billion this holiday season. The first installment of the Consumer Intentions and Actions survey revealed that consumers plan to spend almost $650 this year on holiday gifts, decorations, cards, candy, and food-up from $632 last holiday.