Study: Brand loyalty key on Black Friday

It turns out brand loyalty played a big role in which stores people visited on Black Friday.

That’s according to the mobile insights and advertising company UberMedia, which analyzed a sample of 1.7 million shoppers who visited 13,000 retail locations over the course of the Black Friday shopping weekend.

According to the analysis, while Black Friday shoppers visited multiple stores, they overwhelmingly visited the same retail locations they normally do on non-holiday shopping trips.

“Holiday shoppers are religiously visiting their favorite stores,” UberMedia chief revenue and marketing officer Michael Hayes said in a release.

“This seems to indicate that the retail experience matters and that brand loyalty trumps ‘door buster’ deals from competitors trying to gain market share.”

Among other findings: Store openings and overnight deals over Thanksgiving weekend bring in a slightly less affluent crowd, with median income about 4 percent lower on average.

Also, those looking for Black Friday deals are willing to travel farther to get them, with the median travel distance up 16 percent from a typical shopping weekend.

Tags: holiday shopping, shopping, black friday, holidays, brand loyalty