Black Friday Could See Greater Digital Shift Than Ever

With Black Friday officially underway, nearly three-quarters of consumers have now begun their holiday shopping in a year that’s expected to be more digital than ever as consumers seek out convenient and seamless shopping experiences.

Last year, three in four shoppers bought items online during Black Friday, and three in 10 shoppers bought items exclusively online. This year, however, could see an even higher share of digital sales; whereas 74% of shoppers bought or planned to make holiday purchases online in 2020 at this point last year, 87% plan to do so this year, according to a recent PYMNTS study conducted in collaboration with Kount.

See the study: The 2021 Holiday Shopping Outlook: Why Convenience and Personalization Will Be Key

The reasons for the increased penchant for digital shopping this year are likely similar to, if not the same as, last year: convenience and COVID-19 concerns. Last year, nearly 68% of eCommerce shoppers used online channels because it was easier and more convenient than shopping in stores, compared to 47% who cited fear of COVID-19 infection as their reason. Additionally, almost 48% of consumers who shopped online on Black Friday in 2020 did so because there was greater product availability online than in stores.

Read more: Black Friday 2020: COVID-19 Steepens Physical Retail’s Long Slide

This tracks with more recent data showing that consumers want rewards, recommendations and frictionless experiences wherever they shop ahead of the holidays. Surveying nearly 3,650 U.S. consumers, PYMNTS and Kount identified four primary consumer personas making gifting decisions this year: “practicality-driven shoppers” motivated by purchasing ease; “advice-seeking shoppers” who seek personalization and product recommendations; “convenience-driven shoppers” who value product availability most; and “hard-to-please” shoppers who want it all, including ease, security, availability, delivery and highly satisfying experiences at every stage.

Increased Spending Power

With months of pent-up demand and strong levels of savings, 74% of consumers plan to spend about the same as more than last year, while fewer than one in five plan to spend less. For shoppers planning to only make online holiday purchases this year, the desire to spend is even greater: 33% say they’ll spend more this year and 45% say they’ll spend about the same amount as last year, with 11% of this subset planning to spend less.

Related news: Merchants Pin Holiday Hopes on Financially Healthy Consumers

Earlier this month, Mastercard SpendingPulse projected that overall retail sales would increase by 10% year over year and 12% compared to 2019 during the week of Thanksgiving, with eCommerce sales alone expected to rise 7.1% versus last year and 50% on a two-year stack. Spending on apparel is anticipated to be 56% higher this year over last, with electronics spending up 29.6% and outlay for jewelry up 39.7%.

Steve Sadove, former CEO of Saks and senior adviser at Mastercard, told Karen Webster in an interview last week that he feels “very strongly” that consumer demand isn’t going to fall apart in the next few weeks, and that it will remain strong through at least the end of the calendar year, even if people finish holiday shopping early or can’t find the gifts they’re looking for.

“The underlying consumer continues to be strong,” Sadove said. “Obviously, you’ve got all the supply chain and labor and margin issues that are out there, but if you look at how the consumer is feeling today, they’re healthy.”

See more: To Compete With Amazon, Department Stores Need to Think Like a Marketplace

Just how much of this spending ends up happening on Black Friday remains to be seen; PYMNTS is set to release new data about this year’s spending holiday on Monday (Nov. 29).