People are already gearing up for the holiday season with bigger budgets and a plan to purchase more online.
According to a recent Rubicon Project survey, “Holiday Shopping Habits 2016,” American consumers are projected to spend an average of $1,175 this holiday season, which is a 12 percent jump from last year. Millennials in particular anticipate spending an average of $1,427 on presents, resulting in a 38 percent increase, year over year. Parents, another important consumer demographic, predicted they would spend an average of $1,711 for the holidays, compared to only $1,383 in 2015.
When it comes to where they will spend, nearly three-quarters of consumers (73 percent) planned on buying products online and a third of consumers also planned on purchasing items with smartphones. Surprisingly, almost a quarter (22 percent) of consumers said they didn’t plan on shopping in stores at all. Millennial males compose a majority of these digitally exclusive consumers and they are most likely to shop for gift cards (64 percent), apparel/accessories (57 percent), toys (46 percent) and technology (37 percent) on their laptops and smartphones.
In addition, nearly half of consumers said they plan to shop on Cyber Monday (47 percent) compared to Black Friday (42 percent). For millennials and parents, Cyber Monday is the most favored shopping day, with 74 percent of both consumer demographics preferring the annual online shopping event over chaotic stores.
Millennial spending habits have also changed this year. More than half (54 percent) plan on spending more money for gifts in 2016 and will focus most of their spending on apparel and accessories (74 percent). Thirty-nine percent of millennials have already started shopping for the holiday season, with 67 percent of them favoring Amazon over other e-commerce hubs. For gift purchases, 76 percent of millennials plan to shop online and 58 percent plan to shop on smartphones.
Parents are also not constricting their wallets for the holidays. An average of $495 will be spent on each child for presents, which is a 25 percent increase from last year. Parents also prefer laptops and mobile devices for holiday shopping, with 76 percent going online and 56 percent using mobile devices to make purchasing decisions. Forty-seven percent of parents have also initiated their holiday shopping and Amazon and Walmart tied the top spot for parent-approved digital purchases (66 percent).