ARLINGTON, Va.–Over half of U.S. adults who shopped through Friday, November 29 and bought consumer electronics (CE), did so online (55 percent), a 10 percentage point increase over last year and a new record, according to interim results from the Consumer Electronics Association’s (CEA)® annual Black Friday Survey. CEA’s Black Friday Survey examines shopping habits, intentions and expectations Thanksgiving Day through Monday, December 1.
Among the 35 percent that bought a CE product through the weekend, tablets (29 percent) have been the most popular CE device purchased, as predicted by CEA’s Pre-Black Friday Survey. Headphones (24 percent), video game hardware (21 percent), smartphones (19 percent) and laptop/notebook computers (17 percent) were the next most commonly purchased CE products during the first two days of the long, holiday weekend.
Almost 39 million U.S. adults shopped on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, an increase of more than 10 million shoppers from last year. The weekend isn’t over yet. Shopping intentions for Cyber Monday are the highest they have ever been in three years with roughly 18 percent of consumers planning to continue the Thanksgiving shopping weekend.
“Consumers appear to have responded to retailers’ strong push to get them in the stores and online early this year,” said Shawn DuBravac, CEA’s chief economist and senior director of research. “The dust is still settling, but early indications point to a weekend of record-breaking online sales and a healthy appetite for key tech products.”
CEA predicts 126 million U.S. adults will have shopped through Monday of the 2013 Thanksgiving weekend. Once again, tech was second only to clothes as the most popular item purchased this weekend, with toys rounding out the top three. Through Friday, 66 percent of those shopping purchased clothing, 35 percent say they bought electronics and 32 percent say they bought toys.
For more information, please contact Danielle Cassagnol at dcassagnol@ce.org. CEA also will host a webinar on Monday, December 2 at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT. Visit CE.org to register.
CEA’s Black Friday Survey presents the interim findings of a telephone survey conducted among two national probability samples, which, when combined consist of 622 adults, 282 men and 340 women 18-years of age and older, living in the continental United States. The initial interviews were completed between November 29-30, 2013. Additional data is available with final figures available Monday, December 2. Please cite any information to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)®.
