Consumers of all ages are more likely to shop on Cyber Monday than Black Friday, according to a Deloitte survey, spending 59% of their holiday budget online, compared with just 36% in store as ecommerce takes a bigger bite.
The per household holiday expenditure in 2019 will average $1,496, Deloitte said, with the top 20% accounting for 60% of total dollars spent.
Deloitte’s forecast calls for ecommerce growth of 14% to 18%, significantly outpacing the 11.2% gain in 2018, with sales in the range of $144 to $149 billion. Use of ubiquitous smartphones for holiday shopping is expected to grow 6%, with other device use remaining flat.
According to the survey, two-thirds of consumers will start their holiday shopping journey online, with 58% of them using search engines as their main source for research.
That said, the in-store experience still plays a major role for shoppers, Deloitte. More than half of shoppers said they also plan to do in-store research for product and price comparison before buying online.
“Every year respondents tell us that the most important factor is discounts,” said Rod Sides, vice chairman of Deloitte LLP, and U.S. leader for retail wholesale and distribution.
Some other takeaways from the Deloitte survey:
- Nearly 70% of high spenders will start shopping before Thanksgiving Day.
- Eighty-five percent of shoppers said free shipping is more important, compared to just 15% for fast shipping.
- Over two-thirds of those who favored fast shipping expect orders to arrive in no more than two days.
- The majority of those who opt for free shipping (67%) are willing to wait three to seven days.
- Over three-quarters of shoppers expect to spend the same or more than last year’s holiday season, despite their less optimistic outlook for the economy in 2020.
- To that point, 44% of shoppers expect the economy to weaken next year, up from 27% in the 2018 survey.
Deloitte commissioned an independent research company to survey 4,410 consumers online between Sept 6-13.