Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

By Craig Johnson, Customer Growth Partners   With a third straight year of dismal retail spending, American consumers will generate only a lackluster 3.4% year-over-year increase in holiday sales, well below the 5% pace in 2010 and 2011, according to Customer Growth Partners’ 14th Annual Holiday Forecast.   

San Francisco –- Compared to non-users, Twitter users start holiday shopping earlier, spend more and are more prone to impulse purchases. According to a new study conducted by brand research firm DB5 for Twitter, more than a third (34%) of Twitter users have already begun thinking about holiday shopping, and 81% say they love holiday shopping, compared to 56% of non-users.  

New York –- Holiday spending among U.S. consumers is expected to rise 1.9% in 2014 compared to the prior year. According to the 2014 Nielsen Holiday Retail Sales Forecast, which surveyed more than 25,000 demographically representative American households in September, 25% of respondents had already started holiday shopping in September.

Retailers are in for a “humbug holiday” with a 3.4% overall increase in sales and a deceleration in e-commerce growth, according to a new forecast from retail industry consulting and research firm Customer Growth Partners.

Rockville, Md. -- Online grocery shopping sales will grow roughly fourfold from about $23 billion in 2014 (accounting for 3.5% of total online and offline grocery spending) to approach $100 billion by 2019 (capturing 12% of total grocery spending). Market research publisher Packaged Facts forecasts that online grocery service providers will develop models that solve logistics problems while being profitable for the operators.   

Pittsburgh –- GNC Holdings Inc. reported a decrease in profit for the third quarter of fiscal 2014 but still beat Wall Street expectations. Net income totaled $64.3 million, down 13% from $73 million the same quarter a year earlier.