More than half of holiday shoppers (56%) say the state of the economy will affect their holiday spending plans this year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF)’s annual consumer survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.
Among those consumers, 43% plan to shop for sales more often, 31% will comparison shop online more often, and 29% will use coupons more often, among other strategies to make the season more affordable.
Consistent with recent years, nearly all U.S. adults (91%) plan to celebrate winter holidays including Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa. Forty-three percent of holiday shoppers plan to begin browsing and buying for the holiday season before November, in line with 42% last year. Among those starting early, 50% do so to spread out their holiday shopping budgets, while 37% say the prices and promotions are too good to pass up.
Yet while many consumers begin their holiday shopping early, many hold off on making the bulk of their purchases until later in the season, with sales and promotions continuing to play an important role throughout the holiday season. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of consumers say they are likely to wait until Thanksgiving weekend to do most of their shopping, in line with 63% last year.
Consumers continue to shop across a variety of destinations during the holidays. Online remains the leading shopping destination, with 53% planning to shop online. Other popular destinations include grocery stores (43%), discount stores (43%) and department stores (42%).Gift cards remain at the top of consumers’ wish lists, with 47% saying they would like to receive them this holiday season, followed by clothing (44%), books and other media (25%) and personal care or beauty items (24%).
These results come from an NRF survey which asked 8,094 adult consumers about their holiday shopping plans. It was conducted Oct. 1 – 7 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points.
