More than a third of consumers will Christmas shop on the web, says NRF
The web is as popular a shopping destination for holiday purchases as specialty stores, reports trade group the National Retail Federation, though still not as popular as discount stores or department stores. A survey of 8,234 consumers in early October, sponsored by the NRF and conducted by BIGresearch, shows that 36% of consumers plan to do some holiday shopping online, with 75.1% planning to go to discount stores, 53.1% to department stores, 44.4% to grocery stores and 36.7% to specialty stores.
Consumers plan to spend an average of $518.44 on gifts this year, $34.18 on decorations, $25.79 on greeting cards and postage, $79.42 on candy and food, and $14.06 on flowers.
Consumers are increasingly starting their holiday shopping earlier each year, the NRF survey shows. 42.8% of consumers plan to begin their holiday shopping in October or before, up from 39.1% last year. Another 35% plan to begin shopping in November with the remaining 22.1% waiting until December.
The NRF is projecting that holiday sales will increase 5.7% this year to $217.4 billion, which would be the largest increase since 1999.
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