MasterCard knows all — including the future.
Based on the virtually limitless data points collected, analyzed and stored by the financial services giant, the company’s MasterCard Advisors consultancy wing has come up with a forecast for the top shopping days of the 2017 holiday season.
And, based on shopping patterns of Christmases past and a little algorithmic magic, the busiest sales days may not be what you’d expect.
According to the firm, the biggest online shopping day will be neither Black Friday, Thanksgiving nor Cyber Monday, but the day after Cyber Monday (Nov. 28). Let’s call it Unanticipated Tuesday.
Interestingly, the second-busiest online shopping day will occur two Tuesdays after that (Dec. 12), the company projected, and the third-busiest will be the Tuesday following that (Dec. 19).
Google, which shared MasterCard’s predictions during a visit by AVB/BrandSource dealers last week, was as perplexed as non-Googlers by the Tuesday troika.
Less mysterious, though, is the consumer motivation behind MasterCard’s pick for this season’s No. 1 in-store shopping day: procrastination. For the busiest day of the holiday season in shopping malls and showrooms will be neither Black Friday or Thanksgiving, but the Saturday before Christmas (Dec. 23).
Some things never change.
