This holiday season, many Americans are tightening their budgets as they face lingering inflation and elevated costs for goods compared to pre-pandemic levels. Bankrate Analyst Ted Rossman says despite higher costs this weekend will see a lot of shoppers.
“People are going to be shopping. The National Retail Federation, Mastercard, and others are expecting something like a 2-3% increase over last year. That’s not exceptional, that’s more or less in line with inflation but it is still growth.”
In 2023, 54-percent of U.S. adults made at least one impulse purchase during the holidays. Rossman says it’s an important weekend for retailers around the country this year too.
“We found that 59% of Americans are likely to buy on Cyber Monday, 53% on Black Friday, and 50% on Small Business Saturday.”
Rossman says one surprise was younger generations, particularly Gen Z and Millennials compared to older shoppers and where they are shopping.
“It’s Small Business Saturday that really surprised me. For those young adults the fact that 6 out of 10 Gen Z and Millennials are shopping on Small Business Saturday versus 46% of Gen X and 40% of Boomers.”
Cyber Monday is expected to be the most popular Thanksgiving weekend shopping event.
