While this year is sure to be quite different from years past, the holiday season is always an important one for small business owners. Getting your deals out there early and offering a variety of shopping, payment and shipping options is going to be essential to get your piece of the holiday pie. Here we take a look at a few Thanksgiving statistics that small business owners should know.

More than two-thirds of shoppers (68%) surveyed in RetailMeNot’s annual Holiday Insights guide said this year’s compressed holiday shopping season will change the way they shop. About one-third (34%) said they will start looking for deals earlier than they did last year, and 28% plan to start buying gifts sooner than they did in 2018.

High average order values are every e-tailer’s dream come true. Each shopper spending more at checkout quickly adds up and supercharges your bottom line. Over the Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday weekend, BigCommerce reported AOVs of $140. The fun doesn’t stop there. Average order value over the entire holiday season rang in at $132 last year, meaning weeks and weeks of big spending.

42.5 million -- Turkeys produced this year in Minnesota, the largest turkey producing state, out of a total of 240 million raised in the United States.

The heaviest travel days in order will be Sunday (Nov 30), Monday (Dec 1) and Wednesday (Nov 26)

Millennials were the highest group of shoppers on Thanksgiving night representing 27% of all shoppers. The second highest percentage of shoppers on Thanksgiving were Gen Xers with 25%. Baby Boomers came in the third highest though at a significant drop ringing in at 13%. The lowest number of shoppers on Thanksgiving Day were seniors with only 5% going out for deals.

According to a 2018 survey, more than 50 percent of respondents said that celebrating Thanksgiving was important to them. And we definitely prefer to be home for the holidays. Fifty-seven percent of people celebrate Turkey Day at home.

The average commercial turkey sold in grocery stores weighs just over 30 pounds, according to the Wall Street Journal. That means Americans are eating nearly 1.4 billion pounds of turkey during the holiday.

65 percent of Americans prefer an alternative to turkey, according to . Ham has the majority 60 percent vote, while chicken comes in second with 41 percent and then roast beef at 37 percent.

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