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According to a survey released Tuesday by the National Retail
Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics, 200.4 million
consumers shopped over the five-day holiday weekend from
Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, surpassing last year’s
record of 196.7 million.
“Ninety-five percent of those out for the weekend did make a
holiday-related purchase and the average amount spent on items
including gifts, décor and food was $321,” NRF President and CEO
Matthew Shay said.
Black Friday was once again the busiest day for in-store
shopping, as evidenced by the long line of cars trying to enter
the Chicago Premium Outlet Mall in Aurora before 5 a.m. More
than 76 million shoppers opted to visit brick-and-mortar
locations around the country, up from 72.9 million in 2022.
At a small business-related event Tuesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker
said Illinoisans should choose to shop local and buy Illinois
products.
“It’s an investment in our communities and an affirmation of
what we all know to be true, Illinoisans make some of the
greatest products in the entire world,” Pritzker said.
The big numbers over the holiday weekend may change the bleak
outlook by some Illinois small businesses. A recent survey by
the small business network Alignable showed that 58% of small
business owners in Illinois were not feeling positive about
earnings for the final three months of the year.
“Illinois is in third place on this list of small businesses who
are really pessimistic about what will end up happening in Q4 of
2023,” researcher Chuck Casto said.
According to the NRF, the top gifts shoppers purchased during
the five-day period were clothing and accessories (49%), toys
(31%) and gift cards (25%).
Consistent with last year, about 44 million consumers used their
home desktop or laptop to shop online on Cyber Monday.
NRF defines the holiday season as Nov. 1 through Dec. 31 and has
forecast that holiday spending is expected to reach record
levels and will grow between 3% and 4%, totaling $957.3 billion
to $966.6 billion. The Illinois Retail Merchants Association
expects the increase in Illinois sales to be similar.
The
survey of 3,498 adult consumers was conducted Nov. 22-26 and has
a margin of error of plus or minus 1.7 percentage points.
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