Consumers Break Budgets for Xmas

By George Anderson


The average shopper plans to spend $863 on holiday gifts, according to a recent consumer survey conducted by the International Mass Retail Association (IMRA).


Key findings of the IMRA Holiday 2002 study were:


  • Consumers do not keep to their holiday budgets, spending 15-30 percent more than planned.

  • Women plan to spend 11 percent more, on average, than men on gifts – $911 to $814.

  • Discount stores are the preferred channel for holiday shopping. Eighty-one percent of consumers are planning to shop at these stores.

  • Fifty-five percent of shoppers plan to shop in department stores.

  • Forty-six percent will shop at specialty stores.

  • Twenty-eight percent of shoppers are planning to shop non-store (catalog and Internet) retailers this year, up from 24 percent last year.

  • Only one percent of holiday shoppers plan on going to a warehouse club. 

  • Selection (88%), price (83%), convenience (81%), one-stop shopping (60%), store name recognition (51%) and ethnic selections (30%) are the most important factors that attract consumers to a store.

For more information on IMRA, visit the Web site www.imra.org.


Moderator’s Comment: What do you believe was the key
finding of IMRA’s research? Do the survey results make you more optimistic about
the prospects for holiday season sales this year?


Only four percent of those surveyed by IMRA listed customer
service as a major motivator in the store selection process.

BrainTrust

Discussion Questions

Poll

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