Super Saturday: 142 million one-day Christmas shoppers expected in 2023

By CNN Newsource

Published December 23, 2023 10:44 AM

By Nicole Goodkind, CNN

New York (CNN) — Forget the Super Bowl. For last-minute holiday shoppers, Super Saturday is the sporting event of the year.

Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday this year, allowing Americans to take advantage of a weekend of shopping before the holiday. December 23 is expected to be the busiest shopping day of the year after Black Friday, according to research firm Sensormatic Solutions.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics estimate that about 142 million shoppers will shop at stores or online on Saturday. That’s a sharp increase from the 126 million consumers who were expected to shop in 2017, the last time Super Saturday fell on December 23.

“This year Super Saturday is truly aligned for last-minute shoppers,” Phil Rist, Prosper Insights & Analytics executive vice president of strategy, said in a statement on December 13.

In-store shopping is the preference for those seeking holiday gifts this weekend, perhaps due to fears that gifts won’t arrive on time if purchased online.

About 53 million, or 37%, of Super Saturday shoppers surveyed by the NRF said they expect to shop exclusively in stores this weekend, up from 44 million, or 28%, last year, when Super Saturday fell eight days before Christmas Day.

Resilient consumers

This week, third-quarter US GDP, a broad measure of economic growth, was revised down to 4.9% from previous reports of 5.3%, largely because of a slowdown in consumer spending.

But the NRF survey paints a picture of still-resilient American consumers.

The NRF had forecast that holiday spending would reach record levels for November and December, growing between 3% and 4% over 2022 and totaling up to $967 billion. Last year, holiday sales totaled about $930 billion.

Americans are expected to shop through the end of December and into early January, according to the NRF survey. Seventy percent of consumers said they plan to shop in the week following Christmas, mostly to take advantage of holiday sales and promotions.