Dive Brief:

• Echoing other reports of increased consumer spending, a new survey from JLL found that respondents plan to spend an average of $870 per person on holiday expenses this year, a 25.4% increase from last year. 
• The survey also found that 60.1% of survey respondents plan to buy their goods online from an online-only retailer. Meanwhile, 58% of respondents plan to shop in stores, and 52.6% of respondents want to buy their goods online and have them shipped directly to their homes.
• The survey indicated that the top three stores shoppers expect to visit are Amazon (65.6%), Walmart (45.3%) and Target (39.7%). More than a third (34.4%) of shoppers said saving is their top priority, per the survey.

Dive Insight: 

One thing the JLL report and other research examining consumers' spending habits makes clear is that shoppers want to spend more this year than they did last year. The question is just how much more. 

The NPD Group earlier this month predicted that shoppers plan to spend between 3% and 5% more than last year. Deloitte's research projected holiday sales would grow by between 7% and 9% from last year, and e-commerce sales could see an 11% to 15% bump. Plus, 34% of respondents in a Klarna survey plan to spend more on gifts this year, and more than half of them want to increase their budgets somewhere between $101 and $500.

As consumers plan to buy more this holiday season, they're also shopping earlier, the JLL survey suggests. More than 50% of consumers will begin their holiday shopping before Thanksgiving, an uptick from 43.2% in 2020. In response, retailers like Target and Amazon are introducing holiday deals early to entice shoppers.

But as retailers prepare for a jump in sales, they're also bracing for a shortage of inventory and workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid the worker shortage, retailers have increased wages and offered additional incentives to boost hiring. However, the ports containing retailers' inventory remain clogged, resulting in many consumers likely not being able to get the goods they seek this year.

"While consumer shopping budgets may be returning to normal, the supply chain is still facing pandemic-related challenges that could cause inventory shortages and shipping delays. Consumers should expect to shop earlier in the season if they want to be guaranteed to receive their items by the holidays," Craig Meyer, president of Industrial at JLL Americas, said in a statement.