Retailers: Thanksgiving weekend shopping down 17% in Nevada

CARSON CITY, Nev. — On Dec. 4, the Retail Association of Nevada released shopping statistics for the five-day Thanksgiving/Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, estimating over 1.7 million people spent a total of $545.7 million on gifts, decorations and other merchandise in the Silver State, down from $638.9 million last year.

While that’s a 17 percent year over year decrease, RAN notes an estimated 899,000 consumers did their Thanksgiving weekend shopping exclusively online, representing a 51 percent from 2019.

“This has been a challenging year for Nevada retailers, and a lot of preparation has gone into making this holiday shopping season safe for our customers and employees,” Bryan Wachter, Senior Vice President of RAN, said in a statement. “Retailers are listening to our customers and are investing in the infrastructure to keep stores safe and online shopping and curbside pickup as convenient as possible.”

The Dec. 4 statistics come after RAN released its 2020 holiday shopping projections on Nov. 25, estimating a 3-8 percent decrease in shopping at brick-and-mortar locations in the Silver State, though RAN predicts a significant increase in ecommerce sales in Nevada this year.

Across the U.S., an estimated 186.4 million consumers shopped over the Thanksgiving weekend and on Cyber Monday, a slight decline from the 189.6 million shoppers a year earlier, according to the National Retail Federation. Shoppers over the five days spent an average of $311.75, with nearly $225 going toward gifts and holiday items, according to NRF survey data.

Nationally, online sales surpassed $29.6 billion, a 5 percent increase over a year ago, according to Adobe Digital Insights. That total included $9 billion on Black Friday and $10.8 billion on Cyber Monday, which set a new record for online shopping volume in a single day.

Adobe Digital Insights noted that social media played a big part in driving online sales this year. Over the shopping weekend, social media drove 1 in 10 visits to retail websites, a 17 percent increase from last year.

Top purchases over the long shopping weekend included clothing (purchased by 52 percent), toys (32 percent), books/music/movies/video games (29 percent), gift cards (29 percent) and electronics (27 percent), according to the NRF.