ShopperTrak Identifies Top 10 Best Days to Shop This Holiday Season

CHICAGO, Nov. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- When it comes to holiday shopping this year — good things will come to those who wait — as long as they don't wait too long.  That's because the days with the fewest shoppers and deepest discounts will occur after the Thanksgiving holiday and its famous "Black Friday."

According to ShopperTrak — the world's largest provider of retail and mall foot-traffic counting services — 10 days this holiday season will have decreased foot-traffic and, as a result, better customer experiences.

"Most people shop on two of the season's famous days — Black Friday and Super Saturday — because they're convenient and offer potentially good deals," said Bill Martin, ShopperTrak co-founder. "ShopperTrak counts and analyzes billions of shopper visits at 40,000 locations globally. Based on real-time analytics, we can predict even better days to shop, when consumers' time and dollars will go further."

Weekdays after Major Holidays

According to ShopperTrak, the weekdays following Black Friday and Black Saturday (Nov. 29 – Dec. 1) are the season's best days to hit stores. Black Friday (Nov. 25) is historically the holiday season's top performing sales and foot-traffic day; more than 200 million shoppers crowded stores last year, spending $10.69 billion. On the following day, Black Saturday, $6.06 billion found its way to retailers' cash registers to close out the door-buster weekend.

This year, however, the weekdays following Black Friday and Black Saturday, will have fewer crowds than any other time during the holiday season as many tired shoppers shy away from stores.  That means fewer crowds and good deals for shoppers who wait it out. Many Black Friday sales will still be in effect after the weekend, and retailers, eager to unload remaining merchandise, may further reduce prices to entice the fewer numbers of shoppers to take it home.

Shop in early December

As last minute-shoppers scramble to pick up gifts, the weeks leading up to Christmas mean longer lines, crowded parking lots and more headaches. Weekdays in early December, however, will be some of the best days to beat the crowds, according to ShopperTrak. While every store's foot-traffic patterns differ, weekday business hours, even during the holidays, are typically less trafficked. Most shoppers venture out just after Thanksgiving or in the days leading up to Christmas, making the time in between a shopper's haven. Stores will have smaller crowds and more sales as they work to get customers in the door during off-peak holiday shopping periods.

Though these days are great for shoppers, they also offer important opportunities for retailers.

"Retailers should be prepared to make the most of shopper opportunity, even on the season's slowest foot-traffic days, and adjust factors like staffing and inventory accordingly," added Martin. "Based on our real-time analytics and historical data, ShopperTrak is in a unique position to help retailers understand their customers better and capture sales this holiday season."

The following table shows ShopperTrak's forecasted best days to shop, ranked from least busy to busiest:

About ShopperTrak

Chicago based ShopperTrak is a technology company whose products and services anonymously count people, analyze the data and reveal opportunities to create financial efficiencies in operations and marketing. Global retailers and mall owners have relied on our service to provide critical, daily store performance data. We offer our counting solution as a Managed Service, leaving the client to focus on their core business.  Our Managed Services are further enhanced with our Business Analytics offering, an exclusive data set projecting the number of available shoppers in a defined market.  With over 40,000 managed devices in service, collecting billions of shopper visits yearly, we are the global leader in people counting and store performance analysis. ShopperTrak is a privately held entity headquartered in Chicago with operations in Europe, Middle East and Asia. For more information, visit www.shoppertrak.com.

SOURCE ShopperTrak