Internet-Influenced Holiday Spending Expected to Jump
If the latest survey sponsored by the National Retail Federation (NRF) is correct, consumers are planning on giving the gift of green to U.S. retailers this holiday season. The survey, conducted by BIGresearch, indicates that the average consumer is planning on spending $791.10 during this year’s holiday season, which is a noticeable increase from last year’s $738.11 figure.
In addition, $603.86 of the $791.10 figure will go to holiday gifts. As expected, consumers expect to spend the most on their family members with about $451.34 of the $603.86, while friends come in at a distant second with an expected $85.60.
Consumers also plan on being kinder to themselves this holiday season, indicating that they plan on taking advantage of discounts and sales in order to spend an extra $99.22 on their friend in the mirror.
NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin points to falling gas prices and rising consumer confidence as primary drivers for this financially optimistic outlook for U.S. retailers.
Overall, discount stores will be the retail location of choice for most U.S. consumers, with 70.3% of them indicating so. Department stores are second with 61.6%, grocery stores/supermarkets are third with 49.3%, and specialty stores are expected to see 48.4% of these shoppers.
The Internet is expected to be the fifth most popular retail scene, with about 47.1% of U.S. consumers saying that they will shop online for their holiday purchases. Of this number, 18-24 year-olds make up the age group most likely to shop online, with about 57.3% of them indicating this sentiment. This figure decreases consistently with age.
Related to this, U.S. consumers indicate that they will make use of the Web for over a quarter (28.9%) of their holiday shopping. This is the largest forecast to date.
Though this does not mean that all of this online activity will lead to online purchases, it does mean that consumers are relying more and more on the Internet to conduct their research, search for ideas, and compare prices.
Electronics are expected to be the most researched products online with 39.3% of consumers saying that they used the Web to research these products within the past 90 days.
Most consumers, or 23.6% of them, say that they start their online research at Google, while 7.2% begin at Yahoo!, 5.5% start at Amazon, and 3.7% start at eBay.
Another survey conducted by the NRF’s Internet division, Shop.org, and BizRate.com found that 37.0% of U.S. consumers plan on starting their holiday shopping in November. In addition, 19.9% said that they would start in October, while 18.8% said they would begin during the first two weeks of December, and only 3.8% say they will start during the last two weeks of December.
Sources:
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1004235
http://www.nrf.com/content/default.asp?folder=
press/release2006&file=06holidaysurvey1.htm&bhcp=1
http://www.nrf.com/content/default.asp?folder=
press/release2006&file=onlineholidayshopping1006.htm
