One-quarter
of Canadians planning to shop on Black Friday this year
Toronto, November 19th—In a random
sampling of public opinion taken by the Forum Poll™ among 1282 Canadians 18 years of age or older, 1 in 4 (24%) Canadians plan to shop
on Black Friday in 2018. Poll results showed that 4 in 5 (80%) of Canadians surveyed
who are planning to shop on Black Friday also shopped last year on Black Friday.
How will Canadians do their shopping?
The plurality (43%) of Canadian shoppers will
employ a mix of online and in-store shopping this Black Friday. Of those that
say they will shop on Black Friday, nearly one-third (31%) indicated they plan
to shop exclusively in-store while this proportion was slightly less (27%) when
it came to shoppers who plan to do their shopping exclusively online.
How Canadians feel about lineups?
Over half (53%) of Canadians surveyed who are
planning to shop at brick-and-mortar stores on Black Friday are planning to spend
less than an hour in line. About 1 in 10
said they plan to line up for 1 hour (11%).
Fewer than one fifth of Canadians planning to
shop on Black Friday are planning to spend more than one hour lining up:
o
2 hours (5% of in-store shoppers)
o
3 hours (3% of in-store shoppers)
o
4 hours (1% of in-store shoppers)
o
5 hours (1% of in-store shoppers)
o
6 hours or more (5% of in-store shoppers)
One-fifth (21%) don’t plan to lineup in
advance at all for Black Friday.
Cashing-in on the Black Friday deals
The plurality of shoppers, about one-third
(35%), said they’re planning to spend between $100 and $200.
About one-sixth (13%) said they would spend
less than $100, while a similar proportion (15%) said they would spend more
than $200 but less than $300.
With these numbers combined, more than half
of Black Friday shoppers (63%) say they’ll spend less than $300 this year.
About one-sixth (13%) said they would spend
between $300 and $500.
About 1 in 10 (10%) said they would spend more
than $500, but less than $1000.
1 in 20 (5%) said they would spend between
$1000 and $1500.
1 in 10 (9%) said they would go big and spend
more than $1500.
Just browsing?
4 in 10 (42%) say they are shopping for a
specific item, while more than half (58%) said they will be browsing to see
what’s available.
Of those that plan to shop for a specific item, one-third
(32%) say it will cost less than $100, while a similar proportion (30%) said it
will cost between $100 and $200.
About 1 in 10 (12%) said it will cost more than $200 but
less than $300, while a similar proportion (11%) said it will cost $300-$500 or
$500-$1000 (7%).
About 1 in 20 (5%) said it would cost $1000-$1500 (5%) or
more than $1500 (4%).
$50 or less
4 in 10 (41%) said they expected their item on Black
Friday will save them about $50 or less.
A third (31%) said they would save more than $50, but less
than $100.
One-sixth (14%) said they would save between $100 and
$250.
Few say they expect to save more than $250, but less than
$350 (5%), $350-$500 (4%), more than $500 but less than $1000 (2%), or $1000 or
more (3%).
Online vs In-Store
The numbers on expected spending between online and
in-store are similar.
|
Total spend
|
In-Store
|
Online
|
|
$50
to $100
|
23%
|
23%
|
|
More
than $100 but less than $200
|
31%
|
37%
|
|
$200
to $300
|
16%
|
13%
|
|
More
than $300 but less than $500
|
12%
|
8%
|
|
$500
to $1000
|
9%
|
10%
|
|
More
than $1000 but less than $1500
|
4%
|
3%
|
|
$1500
or more
|
5%
|
5%
|
Which
side of the border?
Half (52%) of shoppers say they will do the majority of
their shopping in Canada, while about 1 in 10 (12%) said they would do the
majority of their shopping in the U.S.
About one-third (36%) said that they would shop in both
the U.S. and Canada equally.
Consumer
loyalty
Canadians appear divided
(51% yes, 49% no) on whether they’d reduce their shopping at a store that they
frequent throughout the year if it didn’t offer Black Friday deals.
What’s
the hot ticket item in 2018?
Almost two-fifths (39%) of Canadians reported the item
they’re most seeking to buy as Electronics, while a quarter (28%) were most
seeking to buy clothing or footwear.
Other sought-after goods include jewelry (4%),
furniture/homeware (5%), baby products/children’s toys (7%), gift cards (4%),
sporting equipment (6%), or something else (7%).
Hype for the HolidaysOver one-third (35%)
of Canadian shoppers surveyed plan to do less than 20% of their Christmas
shopping on Black Friday.
Over one-quarter (27%)
of surveyed Black Friday shoppers plan to do at least 20%-40% of their
Christmas shopping on Black Friday.
Just under
one-quarter (22%) of shoppers are planning to purchase 40%-60% of Christmas
gifts.
Only (16%) of
Canadians reported planning to do 60% or more of their Christmas shopping on
Black Friday.
Shopping dilemmas
A third (32%) said
they had no particular concern about shopping on Black Friday, while one-quarter
(24%) of said that spending more money than they anticipated was their greatest
concern.
One-sixth (17%) said
it was not having enough time to shop in physical stores.
1 in 10 said that it
was protection of personal information (11%), while similar proportions said
material acquisitions won’t bring happiness (9%) or not having access to deals
offered by loyalty programs (8%).
Too many people
About one quarter
(24%) had no particular reason that would discourage them from shopping on
Black Friday, but about one-fifth (21%) said too many people; a similar
proportion (19%) said the deals are not good enough.
About one-sixth (13%)
said the rising cost of living or being too busy (12%).
About 1 in 10 (7%)
blame a stressful in-store shopping experience and few (3%) blamed a stressful
online retail experience.
More than half confident in Canada’s
economy
More than half (Top2:
59%) say they are confident in Canada’s economy right now, with a quarter (24%)
saying they have a lot of confidence.
About a quarter (Btm2: 27%)
say they are not confident in Canada’s economy right now, with 1 in 10 (11%)
saying they have no confidence at all.
About one-sixth (13%)
say they don’t know.
“One-quarter of
Canadians say they will participate in Black Friday shopping this year,” said
Dr. Lorne Bozinoff, President of Forum Research. “In other great news for Canadian
retailers specifically, about half of Black Friday shoppers say they’ll be
doing most of their in-store shopping in Canada. It’s not all good news though,
as half of those same Black Friday shoppers say they’d consider reducing their business
with one of their regular stores if that store didn’t offer any Black Friday
deals.”
Lorne Bozinoff,
Ph.D. is the president and founder of Forum Research. He can be reached at lbozinoff@forumresearch.com
or at (416) 960-9603.
