Electronics amongst most popular purchases during Black Friday weekend
28 November 2011
According to interim results from the Black Friday Weekend survey by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and CARAVAN, electronics were among the most purchased items over the Thanksgiving weekend, with nearly half of all shoppers buying technology.
Once again, consumer electronics (CE) trailed only clothes as the most popular gifts purchased this weekend. Nearly half of all shoppers (48%) bought or will buy CE from Thursday through to Monday. The survey examined shopping habits, intentions and expectations from Thanksgiving Day, Thursday 24 November, to Cyber Monday (28 November). More than 60% of shoppers were purchasing clothes during that time frame. Toys were also a popular gift last weekend.
CEA’s 18th Annual CE Holiday Purchase Patterns Study showed the average consumer will spend an all-time high of $246 on electronics gifts this year, up 6% from last year and representing one-third of all gift spending.
“Black Friday shopping has fast become a Thanksgiving weekend tradition, like football or a post-Turkey dinner nap, for millions of shoppers,” said Shawn DuBravac, CEA’s Chief Economist and Director of Research. “The holiday shopping season got off to a strong start as many hit the stores or went online to kick-off their holiday shopping as soon as they finished Thanksgiving dessert. These bargain hunters were able to find the deals they were after.”
Consistent with CEA’s earlier holiday forecast, the Black Friday Weekend survey showed the most popular electronics purchased/planned to purchase this weekend were:
• Digital cameras
• Video game consoles
• Accessories (such as cables and cases)
• Televisions
• Notebook/laptop computers
• Smartphones
• MP3 players
• e-Readers
• Tablet computers
Mass merchants were again the most popular place to shop during the Black Friday weekend. Roughly 77% of those who had already shopped, as of Friday, reported shopping at a mass merchant. When including individuals’ shopping intentions for the rest of the weekend, that number rises to 81%. Department stores, electronics stores and online retailers were also popular shopping destinations. Nearly half of shoppers (46%) who bought electronics purchased their CE device online.
Most consumers were happy with the deals they found this weekend. Of those who shopped, 69% rated the deals and sales as good or excellent. When it comes to electronics, 61% said the deals and sales were good or excellent. More consumers also said the deals they found in stores were better than online, with 60% rating in-store deals as good or excellent versus 35% for online.
“Electronics continue to be the must-have gifts of the holiday as consumers are allocating more of their overall gift budget to buy the latest, innovative technologies,” said DuBravac. “Mature product categories, such as televisions, digital cameras and MP3 players, fared well this weekend as unprecedented price points proved too tempting for shoppers to ignore.”
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