Consumers flocked to the stores on Black Friday looking for early-bird specials and great deals, according to findings of the second Christmas Retail survey released by America’s Research Group (ARG) and UBS. Their numbers were greater than last year and of these shoppers, 90.7% said they got an early-bird deal compared to 88.1% last year.
“This weekend was a wake-up call for retailers who believe they can excite shoppers with 40% to even 50% off sales,” says C. Britt Beemer CEO and founder of ARG. “Retailers that recognize people’s need and determination to save money will be the winners this year,” he added.
Only 27.8% of those consumers who said that they would shop on Black Friday, did not. Last year that figure was 37.0%. Almost three quarters of consumers (72.9%) said they went for the “door busters” compared to 69.7% last year.
The Friday shoppers liked the early-bird specials more this year, too, 54.6% versus 37.7% last year. Electronics was the hands down winner this year with 23.3% of consumers putting them at the top of their shopping lists (compared with 18.5% last year).
Beemer called Friday sales ‘very strong’ this weekend, while Saturday and Sunday sales were ‘decent’, he said.
More shoppers (23.3%) went to just one store this weekend, the highest number in 10 years.
The survey also revealed that only 18.1% have shopped on-line in November, compared with the all-time high of 24.7% in 2006.
Earlier this month, Beemer predicted that retail sales will be down 2.9% compared to last year. His predictions have been accurate within a half of 1% over the past 17 of 18 holiday seasons. ARG and UBS will conduct a Christmas retail survey every weekend through the holiday sales season.
Conducted November 27 to 29, 2009 at ARG headquarters in Charleston, SC, the ARG/UBS Christmas Retail survey consisted of telephone interviews with 680 consumers out of the 711 who said they expected to shop this weekend, an extraordinary 95.6% re-contact rate. The error factor is plus or minus 3.8%.
America’s Research Group, one of the nation’s foremost consumer research and strategic marketing firms, marks its 30th anniversary in 2009. CEO Britt Beemer is a key resource and advisor to leading brands and top retailers. He is author of The Customer Rules, published by McGraw-Hill.
UBS Global Equity Research provides the broad global perspective and in-depth analysis that institutional investors need to make good investment decisions. With more than 600 analysts, associates, strategists and economists in EMEA, APAC and the Americas, UBS covers approximately 85% of the world market capitalization - over 3,300 companies worldwide across 46 different markets. In addition to UBS's disciplined fundamental research, clients also rely on UBS for corporate and expert access to give them the insight they need, when they need it.