Think you know what the single busiest shopping hour of the year is? Better yet, do you feel as though you absolutely know whether US shoppers prefer to hit the stores in the morning, mid-afternoon, or the evening?

No matter what your gut instinct may tell you, ShopperTrak’s data  gives us a a pretty solid guess of when shoppers like to shop. In fact, with the busiest shopping day of the year, Black Friday, behind us, we can now definitively say that the busiest hour of the busiest day of 2017 was the hour of 3 – 4 PM.

That said, 2017 marks the fifth year in a row that ShopperTrak data indicates that 3 – 4 PM represents the busiest hour for retailers on Black Friday. And, as in previous years, the second busiest hour of the busiest day goes to 2-3 PM, followed by 4-5 PM. Check out the results below, to see for yourself.

When analyzing your own brand’s hourly, daily, or weekly data, or even when looking at ShopperTrak’s results in aggregate, it’s important to keep the temperature of the general retail climate in mind. Though Black Friday, this year, saw a minimal decrease in traffic, it’s important to be cognizant of the fact that the proliferation of digital devices – e.g., WiFi-enabled mobile phones, bluetooth earpieces, health monitoring bracelets, etc. – has added to the emergence of a pervasive omnichannel shopping experience in which it’s up to  individual retailers to investigate precisely how digital activity affects in-store performance.

With 7 out of ShopperTrak’s 10 busiest holiday shopping days still remaining – including Super Saturday on Dec. 23^rd – make sure to take time during this week to analyze end-of month performance, so that you can make adjustments that will enable your team to excel throughout the remainder of the season.