Super Saturday shopping poised to hit a new record this week

Washington – The last Saturday before Christmas is expected to be a big one, according to the latest annual survey data from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics.

An estimated 158.9 million consumers plan to shop on the last Saturday before Christmas. The figure is up from 157.2 million shoppers last year and surpasses the previous record of 158.5 million in 2022.

Nearly half, or 71.6 million (45%), expect to shop both in-store and online, up from 69.5 million (44%) in 2024. For the remainder who are planning to shop a single channel, 46.2 million people (29%) will do so exclusively in-store, while 41.1 million (26%) will shop online only.

The top destinations where consumers plan to finish their shopping include online (46%), department stores (33%) and discount stores (26%). The top gifts shoppers have picked up so far include clothing and accessories (48%), toys (30%), gift cards (27%), books, music, movies, video games and other media (25%) and personal care or beauty items (23%).

Even though many shoppers started shopping in October, as of early December, consumers had completed just over half (51%) of their holiday shopping on average.

“Along with tangible items, gifts of experience continue to be a popular choice for people looking to create memories with loved ones,” said Phil Rist, Prosper’s EVP of strategy. “Three in 10 shoppers (31%) plan to give an experience this year, such as art classes or tickets to an event. This figure has grown in popularity over the past 10 years, when only 22% of shoppers expected to give an experience in 2015.”

Looking ahead, 70% of consumers plan to shop the week immediately after Dec. 25. The top reasons include taking advantage of holiday sales and promotions (45%) and using gift cards (26%).

NRF defines the holiday season as Nov. 1 through Dec. 31 and has forecast that holiday spending will surpass $1 trillion for the first time with growth between 3.7% and 4.2% over 2024.

The survey of 8,005 adult consumers was conducted Dec. 1-10 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points.