WASHINGTON—An estimated 186.4 million consumers took advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and shopped in-store and online this year, according to the annual survey released today by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics.

“As expected, consumers have embraced an earlier start to the holiday shopping season, but many were also prepared to embrace a long-standing tradition of turning out online and in stores over Thanksgiving weekend to make gift purchases for family and friends,” said NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay.

“Retailers have been planning for the season by ensuring that their stores are safe, their associates are trained, the inventory is stocked and the online experience is seamless. Many things have changed since the onset of the pandemic, but the commitment by retailers to meet the consumer where, when and how they shop at the prices they want to pay never changes.”

While the overall number of shoppers (186.4 million) from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday dropped slightly from 189.6 million in an unusually robust 2019, this figure is still significantly higher than the 165.8 million shoppers in 2018.

Black Friday and Saturday saw tremendous growth in online activity. For the first time, the number of online Black Friday shoppers passed the 100 million mark, up 8 percent over last year. The number of online Saturday shoppers grew even more, up 17 percent compared with last year. Online-only shoppers increased by 44 percent for the entire weekend, for a total of 95.7 million.

Click here to read the full story from the NRF.