Consumer research shows shoppers now demand 40-50% markdowns to motivate holiday purchases

By Journal Services Staff Writer

A 15% discount won’t motivate most Black Friday shoppers anymore, according to multiple consumer research studies analyzing 2024 holiday shopping behavior.

Roughly 38% of shoppers say they will only purchase items marked down by at least 50%, according to a Deloitte holiday shopping survey reported by CNBC. The finding represents a significant shift in consumer expectations during the critical holiday shopping period.

The threshold for driving physical store traffic appears even higher. Stores offering minimum 40% discounts successfully attracted customers to brick-and-mortar locations on Black Friday, while retailers promoting only 30% markdowns experienced noticeably lower foot traffic, according to analysis by retail consulting firm Kearney reported by The Associated Press.

Adobe Analytics, which tracks online retail transactions, reported peak Black Friday 2024 discounts ranging from 19.5% to 27.8% across major product categories including toys, electronics, televisions, apparel, computers and sporting goods, according to data published by Retail Dive. Toys saw the deepest discounts at 27.8% off list prices, while sporting goods discounts reached 19.5%.

More than 60% of shoppers began searching for Black Friday deals in October or early November, according to a Boston Consulting Group survey of more than 10,000 consumers across nine countries, as reported by Chain Store Age.

Additionally, more than 90% of U.S. Black Friday shoppers planned to search for deals before making purchases, the BCG study found.

WalletHub’s 2024 analysis of Black Friday pricing found that 41% of items marketed as Black Friday deals carried identical pricing to other times of year, while 26% were priced higher than previous non-promotional periods, according to Newsweek’s coverage of the research.

Online Black Friday sales reached $10.8 billion in 2024, a 10.2% increase over 2023, according to Adobe Analytics data reported by NPR.

However, consumers planned to spend an average of $622 during the Thanksgiving weekend shopping period, down 4% from the previous year, Deloitte research showed, as reported by CNBC.

The research indicates that discounts of 30% to 40% represent the minimum threshold for driving traffic during the Black Friday shopping period, with the most successful promotions offering 50% or higher markdowns.

The shift reflects multiple factors including inflation concerns, increased price comparison behavior, and greater consumer skepticism about promotional claims, according to the various research studies.