While some polls show Americans are feeling strapped, they’re still spending, according to 2023 data from the National Retail Federation.
In fact, spending for this holiday season is expected to reach $966.6 billion.
An estimated 182 million people are planning to shop in-store and online from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday this year, according to the NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics’ annual survey of more than 8,400 adult consumers.
That’s nearly 16 million more people than last year — and the highest number since the NRF survey began tracking this figure in 2017.
The survey shows nearly 75% of those looking to buy plan to shop during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend this year — that’s a nearly 70% jump from before the pandemic, in 2019.
Sixty-one percent of the respondents say they’re going to buy because deals “are too good to pass up,” while 28% say it’s only because of tradition.
Black Friday is still the most popular day to shop, with nearly three-quarters saying they’re planning to do so then. But so-called Cyber Monday, the first Monday after the holiday, will have nearly 71.1 million people logging on to spend.
Nearly 60% of the shoppers surveyed said they’ve already started browsing and buying to get a head start on the holidays, with nearly a quarter of their Christmas lists already filled.
Survey questions, methodology and results have not been verified or endorsed by ABC News or The Walt Disney Company.