About 154 million shoppers made purchases at stores or on e-commerce sites this holiday weekend, the National Retail Federation reported Sunday, a bump up from the 151 million people who last year participated in the annual barrage of Black Friday deals.
But it wasn't all good news: Average spending per person was down to $289.19 from $299.60 in 2015, a decline of nearly 3.5 percent.
Matt Shay, the chief executive officer of the National Retail Federation, attributed the decline in spending to deep, broad discounts over the four-day weekend. He said many retailers have been planning for the markdowns as a means of keeping their inventories low and decreasing the amount they have to spend hanging on to excess stock.
"In a perfect world, everyone would sell everything at full price," Shay said on a conference call. "But as consumers, and as buyers, all of us would like to get a deal on things we'd like to buy."
Other factors could have contributed to the decline in per-person spending. Retailers have been spreading their Black Friday deals out over a longer stretch, so it's possible that many people pounced on offers before Thanksgiving even arrived. And the trade group's survey found that about 122 million people plan to shop online today, up from 121 million last year.
"There's a confluence of events here," Shay said. "Since the recession, we've had much more cost-conscious consumers. In the last six to seven years, people have been much more deliberate about the purchases they've made. And that coincided with the ability to access information in a very transparent way because of the existence of smartphones and technology-enabled pricing."
This year, about 108.5 million people shopped online over the holiday season, compared with 103 million last year. Meanwhile, the number of people who shopped in stores fell to 99.1 million from 101 million last year.
Online sellers are also doing more promotions either before or after the four-day stretch after Thanksgiving. EBay Inc., for instance, urged Thanksgiving travelers to buy things on their smartphones while in transit, dubbing the event "Mobile Wednesday."
Other data released over the weekend offer evidence that online spending was strong on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Adobe, which analyzed 22.6 billion visits to retail websites, reports that a record $3.34 billion was spent online on Black Friday, up 21.6 percent from the previous year. Sales on Thanksgiving Day were up 11.5 percent to $1.93 billion.
Adobe's research found that top-selling items included iPads, Samsung 4K televisions and toys such as Lego Creator sets and the Barbie Dreamhouse.
The National Retail Federation had earlier projected that the retail industry would see a 3.6 percent increase in sales this holiday season over last year -- better than the 3 percent growth registered in 2015. The trade group's chief economist, Jack Kleinhenz, said Sunday he believes that prediction "holds up pretty well" right now, even as some have asked whether the surprising election results might have altered consumers' mind-set.
Experts say that in a presidential campaign year, the election serves as a temporary distraction from shopping. The federation's survey seems to reflect that: About 23 percent of respondents said they hadn't started their holiday shopping yet, compared with 19 percent last year.
A smaller share of people have finished their holiday shopping. This year, just 9 percent of shoppers have done so, compared with 11 percent last year.
Janice Allsop, 66, a retired secretary who worked in the trucking industry, said she'll likely spend more this year because of Donald Trump's election win.
"The stock markets have gone up. I'm just delighted with President Trump," said Allsop, who was shopping at Water Tower Place mall in Chicago on Saturday.
"I'm not afraid [to spend more]. If Hillary Clinton would have gotten in, I would have been very scared, very reluctant."
But Joyce Hill, a 67-year-old retired auto worker from Inkster, Mich., who was also shopping in Chicago, was worried that Trump will cut back on Social Security.
"I'll spend less because you don't know what's going to happen," she said. "I don't think [Trump] will support us, but I don't know if he's gonna let things stay status quo."
Information for this article was contributed by Sarah Halzack of The Washington Post; by Anne D'Innocenzio, Sadie Gurman, Don Babwin, Bruce Shipkowski and Josh Boak of The Associated Press; and by Nick Turner and Jing Cao of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 11/28/2016