The ceremonial kickoff to the holiday season started with a bang, according to the findings of a new National Retail Federation (NRF) survey. The third installment of the NRF 2003 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch for NRF, indicates that 71.8 percent of consumers were out shopping on “Black Friday” weekend. (The term “Black Friday” was coined because, traditionally, the day after Thanksgiving was the day that retailers went from being in the red-or in debt-to being “in the black”-or making a profit.)
“As expected, consumers were out in full force last weekend,” said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. “With the economy in better shape and a little more money in consumers pockets, we are hopeful the momentum continues throughout the holiday season.”
The top gifts purchased this weekend included books, CDs, DVDs, videos or video games (39.3%); clothing or clothing accessories (35.6%); toys (31.6 %) and home décor or home-related furnishings (20.5%).
More than half of consumers have begun their holiday shopping, but they are not as far along as they were last year. According to the survey, the average consumer has completed 36.9 percent of their holiday shopping-last year, consumers had finished 38.7 percent of their shopping by December 1.
“As a whole, consumers have completed less of their shopping than they had last year at this time,” said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. “This could mean that the best is yet to come in December.”
This year, one in four consumers plans to purchase electronics or computer-related accessories as holiday gifts. According to the survey, the most popular electronic item this year will be DVD players, with 8.4 percent of consumers planning to purchase one as a gift and an additional 7.3 percent planning to purchase one for themselves.
“Many consumers were driven to the stores last weekend by great sales on electronics and toys,” said Phil Rist, Vice President of Strategy for BIGresearch. “Now that many of the most popular electronics are affordable for the average shopper, people are picking up DVD players and digital cameras as gifts, but also for themselves.”
Consumers purchased their holiday gifts from a variety of retailers last weekend. While 43.3 percent visited discounters, 29.4 percent purchased from department stores and 24.0 percent shopped at specialty stores. Also, as expected, many consumers are choosing to shop online this year; 31.2 percent of shoppers purchased holiday merchandise online over the weekend.
NRF continues to project an increase of 5.7 percent in holiday sales this year over last year, bringing estimated revenues of $217.4 billion this holiday season. The first installment of the Consumer Intentions and Actions survey revealed that consumers plan to spend over $670 this year on holiday gifts, decorations, cards, candy, and food-up from $649 last holiday.
