Cyber Five Drew 9% More Shoppers Than Last Year 

A record number of Americans shopped during Cyber Five. 

During the five days from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, 196.7 million Americans shopped in stores and online, the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics said Tuesday (Nov. 29) in a press release. 

That total is 9% higher than last year and is the highest since NRF started to report this data in 2017. 

“It is important to note that while some may claim that retail sales gains are the result of higher prices, they must acknowledge the historic growth in consumers who are shopping in-store and online during the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend and into Cyber Monday,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said in the release. “It is consumer demand that is driving growth.” 

Compared to last year, the number of consumers who visited brick-and-mortar stores over the weekend leaped 17% to 122.7 million, while the number who shopped online grew 2% to 130.2 million, according to the release. 

While deals and sales offered by retailers before this weekend led consumers to do some holiday shopping earlier, many have saved the bulk of their shopping for November and December. Even after Cyber Five, consumers said they had completed only 47% of the holiday shopping that they plan to do this year, the release said. 

“While Thanksgiving is no longer the starting point for holiday shopping, this five-day shopping period still plays an important role in the overall holiday season,” Prosper Executive Vice President of Strategy Phil Rist said in the release. 

As PYMNTS reported Monday (Nov. 28), this official kick-off weekend of the 2022 shopping season also showed a new bias for more point-of-sale (POS) credit and financing and increased reliance on digital channels than ever before. 

Almost one-third of shoppers used credit cards, POS loans or installment plans to pay for their Black Friday buys this year, according to “Black Friday 2022: High Prices Reshape Holiday Shopping Habits.”