Most of Canada will shop Black Friday sales

The Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping events are this weekend and more than three quarters of the country will be taking advantage of sales, according to a new survey from SurveyMonkey.

Among the respondents, 78% say they plan to shop sales this weekend, and 37% say they will do so both in store and online. Only 8% say they plan to shop exclusively in store, with 33% saying they plan to shop exclusively online. That leaves 22% who say they plan to avoid Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping altogether.

For those who do plan to shop this weekend, 46% say they plan on completing “a little” of their total holiday shopping, with 26% saying they hope to do roughly half and 22% wanting to get most of it done.

Retailer websites are the most popular source for information about Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, with 63% of shoppers saying they will turn to them for information about prices on particular items or if a store has what they are looking for in stock. Online ads (46%), direct emails (45%) and stores themselves (42%) will also be popular sources of information, while recommendations from friends (23%) and social media (29%) are comparatively low.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday may also provide an opportunity for retailers to find new customers: 59% of respondents say they plan to shop at a mix of both trusted retailers and those they’ve never shopped at before this weekend.

When it comes to the holiday season as a whole, Canadians are fairly evenly split between the amount of shopping they will be doing in stores compared to online. Thirty-five percent plan to do a roughly equal amount of online and in-store shopping, with 27% hoping to do most of it online and 21% planning to do most of it in store.

The vast majority of Canadians have an interest in purchasing some of their holiday gifts through mobile, with 68% saying they are at least somewhat likely to do so. While still not as popular, shoppable ads and content on social media are picking up steam, with 42% saying they are  likely to browse or purchase products directly from a site like Facebook or Instagram.

While 39% of respondents say they had already started their holiday shopping when the survey was conducted on Nov. 2, the second-most popular time to begin is during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend (22%).

SurveyMonkey conducted an online poll of 1,011 Canadian adults online for its survey.

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