“As consumers are growing more and more comfortable shopping on their phones and tablets, the timetable is opening up for brands to reach them during the holiday shopping season,” said Tony Zito, CEO, Rakuten Marketing. “Our data has shown that most shoppers who buy something between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday start shopping six days earlier, and almost half will check a coupon or cashback site to make sure they leverage any last-minute deals.”
Other Rakuten Marketing retail data highlights include:
- Overall, retail shopping spiked earlier in November this year, the 13-14 (10-11 days before Thanksgiving), versus November 21-22 in 2015 (4-5 days before Thanksgiving).
- Friday at 2 p.m. ET has marked the weekend’s peak hour for retail sales, so far vs. 12:00 am on Black Friday 2015.
“The shifting timeframe of the holiday retail season is indicative of a wider trend that shows consumers are moving to mobile,” continued Zito. “Shoppers, who are able to browse deals from their homes and get retail alerts on-the-go throughout November, aren’t limited to the traditional midnight line outside of shopping malls. We’re excited to see how these trends will affect Cyber Monday activity and predict that sales will continue to increase.”
