From our friends at The NPD Group:
NPD’s annual Holiday Purchase Intentions study results are in. Click here to see the key findings from the study, including TWO predictions for holiday growth this year:
1 – Year-over-year growth of 2.5-3.4% during the traditional holiday period of November and December, across general merchandise categories
2 – Year-over-year growth of 4.3-5.1% during the new holiday period, beginning in mid-October with early promotions, running through mid-January with gift card redemption, and spanning a broader view of NPD’s discretionary categories.
“Holiday has been redefined.”– Marshal Cohen, chief industry advisor, The NPD Group.
Here are some more report highlights:
- Consumers plan to spend an average of $691 during the 2020 holiday shopping season, which is less than last year’s anticipated holiday spending, but on par with 2018’s.
- Fewer consumer plans are what they were last year, with the most significant movement toward spending less than last year.
- The hottest industries of 2020 – tech and home – will continue their momentum through the holidays with significant growth, but holiday staples will see stability compared to last year.
- Half of consumers plan to buy clothing/footwear/accessories as gifts this year.
- 1/2 of consumers plan to purchase intangible items/experiences as gifts for the upcoming holiday season – food subscriptions & streaming service subscriptions lead the list, and gift cards will be particularly popular.
- Consumer plans early on show shifts in the timing of planned holiday shopping are minimal compared to previous years.
- 41% of consumers cited Black Friday/Thanksgiving Weekend/Cyber Monday as the period when they thought they would get the best deals of the season.
- 80% of consumers plan to shop online, BUT shoppers still plan to make 42% of holiday purchases in a store.
- For the first time, free shipping surpassed special sale price as the number one factor influencing where consumers decide to shop this holiday – cited by 41% of holiday shoppers.
- 42% of holiday shoppers will be shipping most gifts because they won’t be seeing family and friends as a result of COVID-19 precautions.
- 57% of shoppers rate the state of the economy poorly (up from 37% last year), and 30% say they will spend less because of the state of the economy (up from 23% in 2019), but consumer feelings about their personal financial situation has not changed since 2019.
- Guilt gifting will take effect – as a result of COVID-19, 40% of consumers will buy more gifts to bring joy during challenging times.
- 31% of consumers say they will do more self gifting as pandemic-related retail therapy.
- Consumers are most influenced by a brand or retailer’s position on social issues, while political issues have fallen in impact.
Please reach out if you have any questions about this year’s results, if you would like to speak with Marshal, or if you’re interested in a deeper dive into additional insights on demographics driving this year’s trends, the hottest categories cropping up, and how COVID-19 is impacting the way consumers are thinking about their holiday plans.
Best,
Janine
Janine Marshall
Twitter: @npdretail