Super Saturday is a popular day for consumers finishing up their holiday shopping and the 2022 figures shows it remains as busy as ever.
Key Findings
While some people plan and prepare for the holidays well in advance, for many others it can be a last minute scramble to buy their gifts and holiday-related items on time.
Which is why the last Saturday before Christmas (dubbed Super Saturday) has become such a popular shopping day.
As this is the ideal time (and maybe the last chance) to get those final few things from the shops.
So I thought it would be good to look at how many people were shopping on Super Saturday in 2022, where, why and what for.
And to do this I've compiled data from the following retail surveys to get a true reflection of the Super Saturday spending statistics for this year.
How Many People Shopped On Super Saturday In 2022?
The last Saturday before Christmas is always going to be a busy shopping day and Super Saturday in 2022 was especially popular.
As the National Retail Federation estimated that there would be 158.5 million shoppers on the day in the United States, which was a 7.3 million increase from Super Saturday 2021.
While the ICSC survey had this figure even higher, estimating that 73% of United States consumers would shop on Super Saturday in 2022, which equates to 189 million people.
So it seems there are plenty of Americans that continue their holiday shopping until late in the day, with 11% saying they planned to buy their final holiday gift on Super Saturday in 2022 (National Retail Federation).
However, inflation was going to have an impact this year with 90% of consumers saying the rising prices would affect their Super Saturday shopping (ICSC).
Why Did People Choose To Shop On Super Saturday In 2022?
So why are so many Americans planning to shop on Super Saturday in 2022?
Necessity was a big reason here, with 37% of consumers saying they still had to buy holiday gifts for people (National Retail Federation).
While 33% were very generous and took the opportunity to buy additional holiday gifts for their loved ones.
But the biggest reason given (for 39% of people) for shopping on the day was to take advantage of the special deals and promotions that many stores were offering.
How And Where Were People Shopping On Super Saturday In 2022?
For Super Saturday 2022 it was estimated that 44.1 million people would shop in-store only, 42.1 million people would shop only online, and 72.2 million people would use both methods (National Retail Federation).
While the ICSC survey found that 70% would visit physical stores while 29% would shop at big online retailers such as Amazon.
And you can see the big increase of United States shoppers in-store on Super Saturday (December 17th) when you look at the foot traffic data, which was 36% higher than on December 3rd and 16% higher than on December 10th (Sensormatic).
With the biggest increases seen for recreation and sporting goods stores (57.1%), department stores (48.1%) and clothing stores (36.4%), while shopping centres had 26.2% more foot traffic and superstores 20.3% more (Placer.ai).
However, foot traffic in-store was down on Super Saturday 2021 levels, with the biggest drop offs being for Electronic Stores (-13%), pet stores (-9.4%) and department stores (-9.2%) (Placer.ai).
What Were People Buying On Super Saturday In 2022?
Super Saturday is such a popular shopping day as it represents many people's last chance to buy holiday gifts.
So it's no surprise that 71% of consumers say they were buying holiday gifts on Super Saturday 2022 (ICSC).
However, it also seems to be a day where money is spent on socialising too.
As 40% of consumers said they'd be spending on dining, while 22% were laying out money on a form of entertainment.
How Were People Paying On Super Saturday In 2022?
Debit cards were the most popular form of payment during Super Saturday in 2022, with 56% of consumers using them to make their purchases (ICSC).
While 47% preferred to use a credit card and pay it off later.
And 46% of consumers still used the traditional method of paying for their Super Saturday shopping in cash.
Rounding Up
Super Saturday is a busy day for shoppers and retailers alike with millions of people hitting the stores to buy holiday gifts.
And we can see from the data collected from various retail organizations here that 2022 didn't slow down at all.
With record high numbers of shoppers predicted on the day, even though in-store foot traffic fell from the previous year.
Sources:
https://nrf.com/research-insights/holiday-data-and-trends/winter-holidays
https://www.sensormatic.com/resources/pr/2022/2022-super-saturday-recap
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