Thanksgiving weekend shopping breaks records: survey

by Sarah Fortinsky - 11/28/23 2:30 PM ET

A sign notes Black Friday discount available on racks of men's outerwear in a Macy's department store on Monday, Nov. 20, 2023, in northeast Denver. While Black Friday may no longer look like the crowd-filled, in-person mayhem that it was just decades ago — in large part due to the rising dependence on online shopping that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic — the holiday sales event is still slated to attract millions of consumers. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) — A sign notes Black Friday discount available on racks of men’s outerwear in a Macy’s department store on Monday, Nov. 20, 2023, in northeast Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

A record number of U.S. consumers shopped over Thanksgiving weekend this year, surpassing analysts’ initial expectations and topping 200 million shoppers for the first time ever.

The five-day shopping period saw 200.4 million consumers shop this weekend, according to an annual survey released Tuesday by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics. In 2022, the same period set a record of 196.7 million shoppers.

The 2023 record is more than 18 million shoppers above the 182 million that NRF previously estimated.

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“The five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday represents some of the busiest shopping days of the year and reflects the continued resilience of consumers and strength of the economy,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said in a press released Tuesday.

“Shoppers exceeded our expectations with a robust turnout,” Shay continued. “Retailers large and small were prepared to deliver safe, convenient and affordable shopping experiences with the products and services consumers needed, and at great prices.”

The total number of shoppers who visited stores in person was roughly consistent throughout the five-day weekend with last year’s numbers — 21.4 million consumers shopped in person in 2023, and 122.7 million shopped in person in 2022.

The total number of online shoppers ticked up slightly, with 134.2.million this year, up from 130.2 million last year, the data shows.

Black Friday saw the most significant increase in its number of shoppers — both online and in person — while the number of consumers shopping on Cyber Monday declined slightly from 2022.

On Friday, roughly 90.6 million consumers shopped online, up from 87.2 million in 2022. Roughly 76.2 million consumers shopped at in-person stores on Black Friday, up from 72.9 million in 2022.

The approximately 73 million consumers who shopped on Cyber Monday in 2023 is down from the 77 million in 2022, the survey shows.

The survey was conducted Nov. 22-26 with 3,498 adult consumers participating. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.7 percentage points.