Nearly Half of Holiday Shoppers Hitting Stores Before November 1

Mobile and Deals to Play a Major Role in Shopper's Purchase Decisions

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Oct 11, 2016, 07:00 ET

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- RetailMeNot, Inc., a leading digital savings destination connecting consumers with retailers, restaurants and brands, both online and in-store (www.retailmenot.com/corp), released a new study today, titled "Unwrapping Holiday Insights: The 2016 Retailer Guide to Consumer Trends." This study explores the shopping habits of consumers during the holiday season, including five trends for retailers to keep an eye on in 2016.

The full report includes a combination of RetailMeNot's internal data based on millions of consumer actions and tens of thousands of retailers' promotions, in addition to two consumer surveys conducted by Google Consumer Surveys and Kelton Global for RetailMeNot.

Download the full study at www.retailmenot.com/holidayinsights2016

Holiday Shoppers Start Early and More Are Searching for Deals
Based on historical trends, RetailMeNot is expecting holiday shopping and browsing to take off the first week of November. Last year on November 7, RetailMeNot saw a 21% uptick in shoppers searching for deals. Additionally, among consumers surveyed in 2016, nearly half of shoppers (46%) said they plan to start their holiday shopping before November 1. Deal seeking remains top of mind with more than 60% of consumers surveyed planning to shop sales and promotions, up from 51% in 2015.

"It's important for retailers to ensure they enter consumers' consideration set early in the season," said Marissa Tarleton, chief marketing officer of North America for RetailMeNot, Inc. "Having the right promotional mix is key for reaching these shoppers."

Mobile Drives Shoppers In-Store
Nearly 3 in 4 shoppers (73%) say they are planning to shop in brick-and-mortar stores this season, and 50% said that the deals they find will help them determine which days to shop in-store. The top mobile shopping days continue to coincide with the biggest in-store shopping days, with Black Friday taking the #1 spot followed by the weekend before Christmas. The top three categories where shoppers wish to see more in-store offers this year are home and garden, multi-category, and health and beauty.

"We continue to see mobile content drive more sales and foot traffic for brick-and-mortar stores," says Tarleton. "Retailers have a big opportunity to acquire new customers this holiday season via their mobile marketing efforts."

More Deals Bring More Joy This Season
Shoppers will do just about anything for a good deal during the holidays. In fact, 46% would spend a full day hunting online for the best price, 26% would travel more than an hour to visit a store with a great deal, and 23% plan to line up outside store doors before they open in order to snag the best prices on the hottest products.

Women prefer free shipping options more than men (35% vs. 26%), while males tend to lean more toward specific product deals than females (21% vs. 14%). Overall, though, free shipping leads the pack with 31% of the general population citing that they are likely to spend more money with a brand or retailer who offers to pick up those costs, followed by a percent off the total purchase (28%) and specific product deals (17%), which round out the top three preferred savings methods.

Shoppers will be seeking deals in these categories:

Electronics (smartphones, TVs, etc.): 56%
Clothing and Shoes: 51%
Toys: 31%
Restaurants and Entertainment: 20%
Jewelry: 18%
Travel: 15%

While consumers plan to hit the shops more this season, they also plan on dining out more frequently for a post-shopping nosh. Nearly half of shoppers (45%) say they dine out most often during the holiday season, and 66% of them are more likely to look for restaurant savings before they chow down.

For information on these findings and more, download the full report at www.retailmenot.com/holidayinsights2016

About the Surveys
This study is based on findings from the RetailMeNot Promotions Index (https://www.retailmenot.com/corp/index/) and internal data collections from over 500,000 offers for 50,000 retailers in the U.S., including engagement insights from millions of consumers. Forecasting models for 2016 holiday predictions are based on data and stats pulled from historical shopper insights in 2014 and 2015.

Additionally, two surveys from RetailMeNot, Inc. gathered consumer sentiment and shopping preferences for the 2016 holiday shopping season: a Google Consumer Survey and a RetailMeNot, Inc. survey conducted by Kelton Global. The Google Consumer Survey was conducted between August 5 and 9, 2016, in which 1,015 U.S. consumers aged 18 and over were surveyed regarding their holiday spending and preferences. The RetailMeNot, Inc. August 2016 Survey was conducted by Kelton Global between August 23 and 26, 2016, among 1,037 nationally representative Americans ages 18 and over, using an email invitation and an online survey. Quotas are set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the entire U.S. population ages 18 and over.

About RetailMeNot, Inc.
RetailMeNot, Inc. (http://www.retailmenot.com/corp/) is a leading digital savings destination connecting consumers with retailers, restaurants and brands, both online and in-store. The company enables consumers across the globe to find hundreds of thousands of digital offers to save money while they shop or dine out. During the 12 months ended June 30, 2016, RetailMeNot, Inc. experienced over 688 million visits to its websites. It also averaged 18.8 million mobile unique visitors per month during the three months ended June 30, 2016. RetailMeNot, Inc. estimates that approximately $4.8 billion in retailer sales were attributable to consumer transactions from paid digital offers in its marketplace in 2015, more than $600 million of which were attributable to its in-store solution. The RetailMeNot, Inc. portfolio of websites and mobile applications includes RetailMeNot.com in the United States; RetailMeNot.ca in Canada; VoucherCodes.co.uk in the United Kingdom; retailmenot.de in Germany; Actiepagina.nl in the Netherlands; ma-reduc.com and Poulpeo.com in France; RetailMeNot.es in Spain, RetailMeNot.it in Italy, RetailMeNot.pl in Poland and GiftCardZen.com and Deals2Buy.com in North America. RetailMeNot, Inc. is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol "SALE." Investors interested in learning more about the company can visit http://investor.retailmenot.com.