“Holiday 2021 continues the early shopping trend, with the added layer of inventory concerns motivating many shoppers to grab what they want when they see it, instead of waiting for better deals later in the season,” said Marshal Cohen, chief retail industry advisor for NPD.

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. (PRWEB) October 06, 2021

A recent survey from The NPD Group reveals that 51% of U.S. consumers plan to start their 2021 holiday shopping before Thanksgiving Day, up slightly from last year. Of those early shoppers, more than two-thirds planned to start checking off their gift lists in October or sooner.

“Holiday shopping has been on an earlier start trajectory since Thanksgiving Day store openings in 2014, and then further accelerated by last year’s pandemic shift of Amazon’s Prime Days to October and panic over shipping delays,” said Marshal Cohen, chief retail industry advisor for NPD. “Holiday 2021 continues the early shopping trend, with the added layer of inventory concerns motivating many shoppers to grab what they want when they see it, instead of waiting for better deals later in the season.”

For the past three years, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have continued to lead the holiday shopping charge. However, last October’s Prime Days, Deal Days, and other competing retailer promotions put October 13, 2020 in the top three shopping days of the fourth quarter for 2020. Once again, retailers like Amazon and Target have announced holiday-type promotions starting this month to further entice consumers to shop early. Black Friday is still the most identified day for finding the best deals for holiday, but recent survey results show the pre-November period growing in significance.

“Early shopping will give way to more inventory as it arrives for the true holiday period, making Thanksgiving weekend a powerful one for shoppers enthusiastic to return to the social aspects of Black Friday shopping activities,” Cohen said. “This holiday season’s exaggerated shopping peaks and valleys, and Cyber Monday, will be somewhat muted by the continuous flow of online shopping that has become more commonplace for the consumer.”

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NPD’s Checkout service offers robust data for tracking and improving performance across all channels plus buyer analytics to help businesses keep current customers and win new ones. Over 130,000 consumers, the largest omnichannel panel focused on general merchandise and foodservice, provide us with receipt-based information on their in-store and e-commerce purchases. With comprehensive data from the same consumers over time, Checkout illuminates trends in behavior including migration to shopping online by category and consumer demographics. Buyer analytics deliver insight into most valuable customers, brand loyalty, brand leakage / lift, brand launches, and more.

About The NPD Group, Inc.

NPD offers data, industry expertise, and prescriptive analytics to help our clients grow their businesses in a changing world. Over 2,000 companies worldwide rely on us to help them measure, predict, and improve performance across all channels, including brick-and-mortar, e-commerce, and B2B. We have services in 19 countries worldwide, with operations spanning the Americas, Europe, and APAC. Practice areas include apparel, appliances, automotive, beauty, books, B2B technology, consumer technology, e-commerce, fashion accessories, food consumption, foodservice, footwear, home, juvenile products, media entertainment, mobile, office supplies, retail, sports, toys, and video games. For more information, visit npd.com. Follow us on Twitter: @npdgroup.

Contact:

Janine Marshall    

janine.marshall@npd.com

Twitter: @npdgroup

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