Hang in There; Consumers Say They’ll Start Shopping Later This Holiday Season
Multichannel merchants expecting to see a strong surge in holiday sales this year may be nervously biting their nails in anticipation, according to a new survey released by the NPD Group. The data compilation firm’s Annual Survey of Consumers’ Holiday Purchase Intentions 2007 revealed 41 percent of survey respondents don’t anticipate beginning their holiday shopping until after Thanksgiving. This represents a 10 percent increase from last year.
Despite marketers’ ongoing efforts to encourage earlier shopping, consumers are going in the opposite direction, saying they’ll start their shopping even later. The survey was compiled from 1,943 interviews of NPD’s online consumer panel. Here are some more of its findings:
* Despite the shaky current state of the U.S. economy, just 5 percent of consumers say they’ll spend less this holiday season;
* 17 percent of all purchases likely will be impulse buys, down from last year’s 19 percent;
* Gift cards are increasing in popularity for holiday shoppers, with 39 percent of respondents saying they’ll buy gift cards, up 10 percent from last year; and
* Clothing was the most mentioned gift choice at 54 percent, followed by electronics (38 percent), toys (37 percent), books (33 percent), music (26 percent) and fragrances (22 percent).
For more information, go to www.npd.com .
- Places:
- U.S.