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People are increasingly shopping online, avoiding holiday shopping crowds.
- People say they plan to spend more money online than in stores this holiday shopping season.
- This is the first year in Deloitte's annual survey that shoppers have predicted their online purchases will exceed what they buy in-store.
- While some retailers are thriving with the rise of e-commerce, traditional brick-and-mortar retailers like $4 and $4 are struggling to keep up.
For the first year, Americans are expected to spend more money online than in stores this holiday season.
Shoppers plan to spend 51% of their holiday shopping budget online, compared to 42% in stores, according to Deloitte's survey of more than 4,000 Americans.
This is the first year that online sales are expected to exceed in-store sales. Last year, respondents told Deloitte that they expected to spend 47% of their budget in stores and 47% online. In every year prior to 2016, expectations for in-store shopping exceeded online sales predictions.
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Black Friday at Macy's
Deloitte's survey looks at shoppers' entire "holiday budget." However, similar trends are expected to play out over $4 weekend, the unofficial kickoff of the most important period of the year for many retailers.
According to National
The rise of online holiday shopping is a boon for e-commerce companies like Amazon, as well as for retailers that have built out their online business, like Walmart and Target. However, for traditional brick-and-mortar retailers like Macy's, Sears, and other department stores, the rise of e-commerce has significantly cut into sales.
The internet is the No. 1 place that customers expect to shop, with 55% of respondents saying that it is the most likely place they will shop this year in Deloitte's survey. Meanwhile, only 28% of people said that department stores would be their top place to shop - a 4% drop from last year.