So far, the 2023 holiday shopping season is off to a big start, although the Black Friday sales looked different than years past.
The National Retail Federation estimated 182 million people planned to shop either in-store or online from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday. Adobe Analytics found online shoppers spent $9.8 billion on Black Friday alone. From November 1 to November 26, Adobe said shoppers have spent $96.9 billion online.
"Compared to 2017, it looks like sales are up somewhere around 70%," said Dr. Adam Craig, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Kentucky.
Craig researches consumer behavior and financial decision-making.
"The deals have always been a way to get people to come into the store or come to the website and buy other things," Craig said.
Craig said the shift to online shopping has also shifted the industry away from huge deals on a single day.
"We're definitely seeing the deals starting sooner in the year, so it seems like once November came around, that there was an increase in stores and companies saying, 'Hey, here are what our holiday deals are going to be,'" Craig said.
That could benefit shoppers who can now do a bit more homework.
"Hopefully, that also allows consumers to be able to do a little bit more price comparison across retailers and a little bit more price history tracking to see if the actual prices or sales are actually as good as what the retailers are advertising," Craig said.
Craig suggests using browser extensions to help make comparisons a bit more manageable.
"Technology really can be your friend in this instance to help you compare across lots of different retailers," Craig said.
As credit card interest rates have increased throughout 2023, Craig said, sticking to a budget is more important than ever.
"Losing track of that, it's really easy to rack up more than you intended and for those interest payments to get you in the end," he said.
