While our data has shown that holiday shopping starts earlier each year – September 30th to be exact, this week proved that shoppers still gear up to get great deals and give back from Thanksgiving through Giving Tuesday.
Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday continued to break records this holiday season, with
PayPal seeing growth – particularly on mobile – in holiday shopping and giving.
In looking at the research from
PayPal’s Holiday Money Habits Survey and our data across the PayPal network—spanning more than 192 million active customer accounts — during Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday, we saw three key trends:
More Shoppers Turned to Mobile on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday
As more people hit the roads for Thanksgiving travel and shied away from fighting the crowds in-stores on Black Friday, more shoppers turned to their mobile devices. With
35 percent of Americans surveyed stating they would shop online at the Thanksgiving table to make sure they got a good deal, it was no surprise. On both Thanksgiving and Black Friday, purchases made on mobile devices accounted for approximately one-third of PayPal’s global total payment volume*. While total payment volume reached record levels on Cyber Monday, percentage growth came in lower than the early estimates we previously provided. The strong trend towards mobile continued and we saw double digit growth in mobile payment volume on Cyber Monday*. According to our survey, we predicted
40 percent of millennials would shop on a mobile device that day.
“Cyber Month” on the Rise
Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday remain major shopping moments, but these key days are experiencing a shift. Our research found that the
majority (59%) of Americans find holiday shopping to be stressful; so much so that more than a quarter of Americans would rather shovel snow from their driveway than fight the holiday shopping crowds. Retailers are catching on, with many merchants offering online deals
throughout the months of November and December. As we see more retailers get on board with this trend and more people shop from their mobile devices, we expect there will continue to be a “graying” of Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday into “Cyber Month”.
#GivingTuesday Reached New Heights
The #GivingTuesday movement – to take a break from shopping and give back during the holiday season – is more popular than ever before. Approximately 550,000 PayPal users donated on #GivingTuesday this year, up from 512,000 in 2015. PayPal has been a lead supporter of #GivingTuesday since its inception five years ago, powering millions of donations on this day alone. This year, PayPal users donated more than $48 million globally on #GivingTuesday,up from a record-breaking $45.8 million last year.
With only a few weeks left in the holiday season, we look forward to continuing to help make shopping and giving back easier and more convenient. That way people can spend more time with loved ones and do what matters most. Stay tuned for more updates from us throughout the holidays!
*All data based on PayPal core data only on a year-over-year basis