The National Retail Federation expects an estimated 158.9 million consumers to shop on the last Saturday before Christmas to edge past the prior record of 158.5 million consumers in 2022. This year’s Super Saturday is considered significant due to the short time period between the Thanksgiving holiday and Christmas. As of early December, consumers had completed just over half (51%) of their holiday shopping on average.
Super Saturday shoppers are expected to embrace multiple channels this year, with nearly half, or 71.6 million (45%), planning 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.
“Along with tangible items, gifts of experience continue to be a popular choice for people looking to create memories with loved ones,” stated Prosper Insights Vice President of Strategy Phil Rist. “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,” he noted. That could be a positive development for ticket sellers such as StubHub (STUB), Vivid Seats (SEAT), Live Nation Entertainment (LYV), and Eventbrite (EB).
The overall National Retail Federation forecast for holiday season spending is for sales growth of 3.7% to 4.2% to surpass $1 trillion for the first time.