OREGON UPDATES
Holiday Surveys Find Shoppers Will Spend More Online, Earlier
October 7, 2020 | Halie LeSavage | Retail Brew • Francis Scialabba | Copy
T he customer mood board your team papier-mâchéd in 2011 is probably outdated. So I gathered the latest data on who’s actually shopping this holiday season and how. I think you’d like to meet them. Identity breakdown Who they are: Not Gen Z and millennials, to retailers’ disappointment. This holiday season, those covetable generations are duct taping their wallets shut. • In a Bloomberg/Harris Poll survey, more than 60% of both 18–34 year-olds and 35–44 year-olds said they have less to spend on the holidays this year. • The youngest among us are also the thriftiest: Teen spending hit an all-time low in H1 2020, declining 9% YoY per Piper Sandler’s annual teen survey. Gift bundles or tiered discounts may persuade young shoppers to spend anyway. In the Bloomberg/Harris Poll report, younger Americans were around three times as likely as their elders to view gift giving as important this
How they feel: Updates from the campaign trail are destroying 1) push notifications and 2) gifting habits of yore. Nearly seven in ten respondents surveyed by Bloomberg/ Harris Poll said they’re feeling uncertain about the economy in the election lead-up; of those potential shoppers, 50% said they’re spending conservatively (in the budgeting sense) as a result. Bottom line: Analysts had already predicted holiday growth would slow for retailers during their all-important quarter. Decreased enthusiasm from shoppers means brands should prepare for a slower holiday season—or work on their marketing skills. n
year, in spite of *gestures broadly*. When they’re shopping: Not when holiday calendar purists want them to, ShopperTrak reports. The ten biggest discount days will only make up 34.2% of all in-store holiday traffic, compared to 46.5% last year. Where they’re shopping: Anywhere there’s a wi-fi connection. Nearly 50% of Americans surveyed by Bloomberg/Harris Poll said they’ll purchase gifts mostly or entirely online.
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The Business Review | October 2020
October 2020 | The Business Review
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