What’s the best day to shop for holiday bargains?
Black Friday sales long ago jumped their 24-hour confines. And with good reason: American consumers spend a third of their annual retail expenditures during these last few weeks of the year.
But this year there are fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so retailers are pushing more deals than ever, according to Thom Blischok, a retail analyst with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
“It would be fair to say that this will be the richest holiday season with regard to the numbers of sales and the percentage of sales,” Blischok said. “And let’s not forget online shopping.”
That online shopping holiday, once known as Cyber Monday, is lately more like Cyber Week. This year Adobe Digital Index found that online shopping deals will peak on Thanksgiving, with an average markdown of 24 percent.
And if you’re wary of scouring Amazon while you’re basting your turkey, Adobe analyst Tamara Gaffney says there’s a reason you might want to reconsider.
“By Black Friday you’re going to have a two times higher out-of-stock when you shop online. When you get to cyber Monday, which is December first, it will be five times higher,” Gaffney said.
So analysts say the best days to shop will be Thanksgiving and Black Friday. It seems the advice is: shop early, shop often.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
