Consumer spending is up this year, with most shoppers expected to buy gifts between Black Friday and Christmas

Black Friday looks a little different in 2024. Gone are the days of the 'Door Buster Sales' and the fights over TV's. Now, Black Friday Shopping is more than just one day of sales, instead it's evolved into several weeks of discounts.

Today, a lot of shoppers would rather spread their shopping out over the month between Black Friday and Christmas, and according to a new survey, companies prefer that. In fact, many of them get a kick start early, beginning extended sales on November 1st.

"Increasingly, people are starting to do a lot of shopping online and doing a lot of the shopping earlier," said Lars Perner, a Professor of Clinical Marketing from USC. "So it used to be that it was considered a bad form to have any significant holiday sales before Black Friday. Now that's actually come back quite a bit, and they sometimes may start as early as in October."

The report found that 60% of consumers use a "hybrid shopping" approach to the holidays, buying small items online and larger ones in-store over a longer period of time.

"Ultimately, people are spending more and more money because there are so many more opportunities to shop.," said Perner.

In the Shopify survey, young adults between the ages of 25 and 34 reported that they will be increasing their Black Friday spending, with 28% planning to spend more this year and 55% aiming to finish their shopping by the end of November.

People who don't do their holiday shopping on Black Friday, 65% reported doing most of their spending between October to December. Other folks even reported hopping on holiday shopping early, in fact 23% percent were found to start shopping for the holidays as early as June.

"There's a lot of competition these days to get the business of shoppers, even if people have to increase the shopping budgets a bit," said Perner. "It's sort of a vicious cycle. If you think of it as a negative thing, it can be bad. But if you think of it as a good thing, it could be a positive cycle. Either way, it's kind of a vicious cycle that your competitors start discounting earlier and earlier."