Will The Day After Christmas Be Bigger For Retailers Than Black Friday? Survey Suggests It Could Be

Forget Black Friday. The most profitable shopping day of this holiday season could be the day after Christmas, a consumer spending analyst said. Given how retailers have expanded holiday sales to before and after Christmas Day, many consumers expect Dec. 26 sales to be as good as those on Black Friday, shopping expert Nicole Leinbach Reyhle wrote in Forbes.

A new study by the American Express Spending & Saving Tracker predicted that Dec. 26 could outperform post-Thanksgiving discount sprees and Cyber Monday, when e-stores offer significantly reduced prices. American Express’ shopper survey this year suggested that a new shopping holiday could be minted this year.

Many respondents said they expected to shop the day after Christmas than Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2015. That breaks down to approximately 66 percent ready to shop on Dec. 26, compared to 45 percent for Black Friday and 47 percent for Cyber Monday.

"Black Friday and Cyber Monday are no longer the only days for big savings, as savvy shoppers have come to expect an entire season of discounts and deals,” said Jed Scala, the senior vice president of consumer lending at American Express. “As we enter the final stretch of the shopping season, we are seeing a growing preference to complete shopping online, possibly connected to the stream of enticing retail offers in consumers’ inboxes,” he added.

American retailers expected the average shopper to spend an average of $186 on Dec. 26, compared to $192 in 2014. The top reasons to shop on the day after Christmas included using gift cards received from others and additional bargains, according to the survey.

Among other findings, a majority of shoppers in the U.S. said they were going to shop last minute, were sticking to budgets and were shopping less for themselves and more for others.