Gen Z, millennial consumers ready to shop Black Friday and beyond

Dive Brief:

Younger shoppers — 16% of Gen Z compared to 7% of their Gen X parents — are willing to pull an all-nighter to get in line for Black Friday sales, according to a survey of 7,056 of users of shopping rewards app Shopkick emailed to Retail Dive. While everyone seems to be on the hunt for deals, millennials (39%) are the most likely to be swayed by them and make unexpected purchases, according to the study.
It promises to be a big weekend, with most shoppers (74%) preparing by researching deals ahead of time, and 19% winging it, according to the survey. Even after shopping that day, 65% will also hit local retailers on "Small Business Saturday," with 52% planning to check out all the possibilities, including Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and Free Shipping Day, Shopkick found. Most (63%) say they will take advantage of early Black Friday deals online, however, according to another survey from Deloitte.
Nearly three-quarters (73%) plan to shop online Cyber Monday, which is set to rake in nearly half (47%) of all online spending, Deloitte's survey of 1,200 consumers, which was emailed to Retail Dive. When it comes to stores, 45% plan to head to mass merchants, 43% to department stores and 33% to electronics/office supply stores, Deloitte found. Americans rank Amazon (44%) nearly as high as all major retailers combined (47%) for deals and say they'll spend the most at Amazon (59%), Walmart (58%), Target (28%), Best Buy (19%), Macy's (15%) and Home Depot (8%), according to another survey from public relations agency Bospar.

Dive Insight:

Shoppers are primed to take advantage of the red-letter sales events that follow Thanksgiving and most will arrive in stores and land on websites knowing where the best deals are. It stands to reason that more of the youngest among them are willing to stay up all night to get in line on Black Friday, considering that they've likely done little of the work it takes to get the traditional Thanksgiving meal on the table.

But American consumers in general appear to be content to concentrate their shopping on the weekend, and Deloitte found that 71% will do so either in stores or online. More than half (53%) believe that Black Friday will host the best deals, followed by early sales (42%), Cyber Monday (38%), after-Christmas sales (36%), December deals (27%) and free shipping day (26%), according to Bospar's survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults ages 18 and up, which was conducted online this month by Propeller Insights and emailed to Retail Dive.

They're using their mobile phones to find research gift ideas (57%) as well as to shop for them (40%), according to Bospar's study. And they're not just shopping for others. More than half (54%) will spend as much or more on things that aren't gifts or on purchases for themselves as they will on gifts, Bospar found.

"The signs are in retailers' favor heading into the weekend, with traffic spread over multiple shopping days and both online and in-store channels," Rod Sides, Deloitte vice chairman and U.S. retail and distribution leader, said in a statement. "We're finding that people who plan to start shopping earlier on major shopping days tend to be those who spend more, which should encourage retailers to connect with people early and often with information people want most this time of year: promotions."

That could also sway undecided shoppers, he also said. "This year, 45 percent or nearly half, of people in the survey told us they remain undecided which retailer they'll shop over the weekend."