With the holiday shopping season upon us, retailers are gearing up for the consumer madness to come.
Of course, the madness isn’t equally distributed across the mobile landscape.
So which retailers will be the biggest winners on Thanksgiving and beyond? Perhaps location data holds the answer.
Placed just released a new study that found Macy’s, J.C. Penney, and Best Buy well positioned by being open on Thanksgiving, while retailers like Aeropostale, Ross, and the Apple Store are leaving money on the table by remaining closed.
The data was published in a new Placed Insights report.
“2013 marks the commercialization of Thanksgiving as the new start of the holiday shopping season, unseating Black Friday,” said David Shim, Founder and CEO at Placed. “Based on 4 billion locations measured in October, Placed is helping retailers determine if they should open their doors and capture dollars and momentum early in the holiday season, or remain closed rather than eating the cost of empty stores.”
Macy’s, J.C. Penney’s, and Best Buy Over Index in Pre-Holiday Visits Among Thanksgiving Shoppers Placed surveyed 14,645 smartphone panelists about their holiday shopping plans and combined this with direct measurement of their offline shopping behaviors.
Placed data indicates that the majority of retailers opening on Thanksgiving have made a smart decision, while those remaining closed are leaving money on the table.
Additional findings from the report that are worth noting include:
- 22% of survey respondents plan to hunt for deals on Thanksgiving, while 45% plan to shop on Black Friday.
- Brick-and-mortar retail is the preferred method of shopping on both Thanksgiving (54% of shoppers) and Black Friday (63%).
- 43% of Black Friday shoppers plan to use their smartphone to compare prices while in store, i.e. showroom.
- Based on observed retail visits in October, shoppers that planned to showroom on Black Friday had a strong propensity to visit retailers in Shoes, Beauty, and Sporting Goods categories.
