Thanksgiving morning marks the most popular time to browse deals.
Retale, a technology company that develops mobile-first shopping experiences, is announcing results of a study examining Black Friday behavior among shoppers.
For the study, Retale analyzed behavioral data from the company’s flagship mobile app, Retale. The app helps 26 million active users find deals and savings nearby through weekly ads and coupons. Retale’s Black Friday analysis evaluated usage patterns from more than five million active Retale users for the month of November 2016.
Two-thirds of all Black Friday views occurred before Thanksgiving.
In the two weeks leading up to Black Friday 2016, shoppers looked at almost 47 million pages of Black Friday content through the Retale app. One-third of those page views came on Thanksgiving and Black Friday (32%). Reversely, two-thirds of all page views of Black Friday content took place before Thanksgiving (68%).
“What this tells us is that a lot of shoppers were pre-planning their trips long before Black Friday,” said Christine Cline, managing director of Retale.
48% of all in-app engagements were around big box discount stores.
In the two weeks leading up to Black Friday 2016, 48% of total shopper engagements were at big box discount stores. Rounding out the top-three for share of shopper engagements were department stores (14%) and electronic stores (10%).
Not only did these types of stores have the most engagement within the Retale app, but they also saw the biggest jump in viewership compared to weeks leading up to Black Friday. Retale compared the engagement rate of content the week of Black Friday to the average engagement rate of content for the three weeks leading up to Black Friday. Electronic stores saw a +32 uplift, followed by big box discount stores (+23 uplift) and department stores (+18 uplift).
Thanksgiving morning was the most popular time to browse deals.
As shoppers prepared for their upcoming shopping trips, Retale found that between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day was the most popular time for browsing deals and coupons. The second peak viewing time was also on Thanksgiving, between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.
The peak viewing times for discounts on Black Friday was from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.
“Shoppers tend to look at discounts on Thanksgiving morning, especially as more retailers launch sales a day early,” added Cline. “The second peak suggests shoppers are getting ready post-meal, either to head out to retailers open on Thanksgiving, or they’re making their Black Friday game plan.“
Store traffic increased for users before Thanksgiving.
Black Friday 2016, when compared to weeks leading up, saw a +226% increase in store traffic by Retale app users.
“A surprising result in 2016 was that the second highest day of store traffic was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving which saw a +16% increase to the average traffic pattern,” said Cline. “We attribute it to Retale users’ heavy engagement with grocery content and their last-minute trips to the grocery store, preparing for Thanksgiving meals.”
The third biggest day was the Saturday after Black Friday which saw a +14% increase to the average traffic pattern.
