Holiday Shoppers to Take a Wait-and-See Attitude
Holiday shoppers will probably be spending about the same amount of money as last year, but they won’t be sprinting to the stores until later in the season, according to the latest holiday survey conducted by The NPD Group Inc., a company in Port Washington, N.Y., that tracks consumer and retail trends.
“Consumers have the same number of people on their gift lists, and they tell us they have pretty much the same budget every year,” noted Marshal Cohen, NPD’s chief retail expert.
In the online survey of 1,943 people, 41 percent said they won’t be venturing out to do their holiday shopping until after Thanksgiving. Last year, only 31 percent said they would postpone their mall visits until after Thanksgiving.
“The hesitation comes because there isn’t that one must-have item coupled with the fact that consumers are conditioned to expect deeper discounts as it gets later in the season,” Cohen observed.
Only 54 percent of survey respondents said they were going to buy clothing as a gift, compared with 59 percent last year. Electronics, a hot category last year, has cooled this year. Only 38 percent of buyers said they would be wrapping an electronic gift, compared with 51 percent last year. Purchases of toys, books, videos and fragrances will hold steady, and 39 percent were opting for the easy way out with a gift card.
The good news in all of this is that only 5 percent of consumers surveyed said they would be trimming their holiday budget.
What’s missing in this year’s holiday season is that impulse-purchase people pick up for a friend or themselves.
In past years, impulse purchases have accounted for 26 percent of holiday sales. In 2006, that figure dropped to 19 percent. Cohen said that this year, we’ll be lucky to hit 17 percent. —Deborah Belgum
