Perhaps the Grinch Won’t Steal Christmas After All, Survey Finds
In stark contrast to all the doom-and-gloom predictions for multichannel merchants this upcoming holiday season, a new report says U.S. households are expected to spend an average of $471 on gifts during the holiday season, up from last year’s estimate of $449. According to The Conference Board’s Christmas Spending Survey 2007, which polled 5,000 U.S. households this month, consumers are willing to spend more this holiday season than last. Below are some more highlights from the survey.
* The top-spending households will be in East South Central states, which include Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee; this group intends to spend $583, the survey says;
* The lowest spenders will be found in the West North Central region, comprising Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, where consumers say they’ll spend $397;
* One-third of all households will spend $500 or more on gifts; 35 percent plan on spending $200 to $500; and the remaining 31 percent plan to spend less than $200;
* Thirty-eight percent of all consumers will buy gifts on the Internet, no change from last year;
* Books will be the top-selling gift bought online, with 40 percent of respondents indicating they’ll buy books as gifts, followed by apparel and software (39 percent), toys/games, and videos/DVDs;
* Households headed by individuals ages 45-54 intend to spend the most this year ($485); and
* Households whose income tops $50,000 plan to spend $612.
For more information, go to www.conference-board.org .