Each year, we have our own holiday tradition at Lab42.  We research how consumers plan to shop for the holidays. It appears as though the recession is fully in the rearview mirror for holiday shoppers this year, with many consumers planning on spending quite a bit more during the holidays than they have over the past few years.According to our newest research on Black Friday and holiday shopping, 62 percent of shoppers plan to start their holiday gift buying on or before Thanksgiving (up from 58 percent in 2014 and 55 percent in 2013). Only 12 percent of holiday shoppers plan to wait until Cyber Monday (November 30, 2015) or later to start their shopping.

Our research also shows that consumers continue to believe that holiday shopping shouldn’t start until after the Thanksgiving turkey has been carved, with 7 in 10 respondents agreeing that stores should be closed on Thanksgiving Day. However, the chance to snag a great Black Friday deal isn’t lost on consumers, with 27 percent of respondents saying that they are planning to start their Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving Day/Evening (an increase from 23 percent in 2014 and 26 percent in 2013).

The data also shows increased support of Cyber Monday compared to last year, with 48 percent of consumers in 2015 saying that they prefer Cyber Monday to Black Friday, an increase of 6 percent over 2014 shoppers (42%). Additionally, while less than three-fourths (74%) of shoppers plan on shopping on Black Friday this year, nearly 8 in 10 (79%) plan to shop on Cyber Monday.Check out our Snapshot Report, and download the snapshot report below.