Study: Holiday shoppers to start early; looking to save

Saving money will be top of mind for this year’s holiday shoppers.

That’s one of the findings of a study by ad platform creator Creatopy on consumers’ plans for the upcoming holiday season in which respondents said the key factors in deciding where to shop are free shipping (67%), deals and promotions (66%) and “value for price” (58%). They are also inclined to choose retailers that have multiple products they desire in stock (40%).

The survey of more than 1,000 consumers also found that most consumers plan to start holiday shopping early — one month ahead (29%) or even two months ahead (20%). They also plan to start monitoring the prices and looking for deals around this period, so businesses should be ready for this, advised Creatopy.

“Companies need to check their marketing calendars and adjust advertising campaign dates to keep up with early shoppers,” the study said.  

Roughly 49% of respondents reported being either somewhat worried or very worried that inflation is going to impact their holiday shopping this year. But despite worries, most say they plan to spend about the same amount as last year (37%), with the usual budget for gifts being more than $200 (46%).

Other highlights from Creatopy’s “10 Holiday Shopping Predictions for 2022” study are below.

• Word of mouth (52%), online advertising (41%) and social media (35%) ranked as the biggest purchase drivers.

• When asked how they plan to do their holiday shopping this year, most of respondents (42.89%) answered with "equally in-store and online"

• When asked how much they intend to spend on gifts this holiday season, 45.77% of survey participants responded with more than $200, meaning there could be a chance for this year's gift spending to be in the same ballpark as that of last year.

• The most popular gift purchases will be clothing items, footwear and/or accessories (45.19%), and toys, games, and hobby supplies (43.30%). There's also a high interest in computers and electronics (33.68%).

The study can be downloaded here.