Most holiday shoppers will buy a gift for themselves this year

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Dive Brief:

Most holiday shoppers (83%) plan to buy themselves a gift this year, up from 76.2% last year, according to JLL’s holiday shopping report. Among the top items shoppers will purchase for themselves are shoes and clothing (50.8%), electronics (47.5%), accessories (39.3%), toys (23.6%) and games (23.5%).
Shoppers expect to spend $1,261 on gifts, holiday food, decor and experiences this year, up 31.7% from last year, according to the report. Nearly half (46%) of the budget will go to gifts, down from 55% in 2023.
Roughly 71% of shoppers will shop via two or more channels this holiday season. While 71% of shoppers plan to buy their goods online for home delivery, over half (58.3%) are shopping at physical stores outside of malls, and nearly 60% will shop at physical stores at an enclosed mall, the report said.

Dive Insight:

As shoppers seek out deals this year, many consumers are starting their seasonal shopping early. Most will start by Halloween, with 65.5% of shoppers between the ages of 30 to 44 beginning by Oct. 31. Younger shoppers, specifically Gen Z, are likely to start during Black Friday weekend, per the report.

With consumers beginning their holiday shopping early, many large retailers are introducing deals ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Amazon is launching its Prime Big Deal Days event in early October, with Target and Walmart conducting their own sales events around that time.

JLL’s forecast of higher holiday shopping spend comes as other research predicts holiday shoppers will spend less. A Bankrate report earlier this year said a third of holiday shoppers will spend less given inflation and high interest rates.

But others are predicting an uptick in online and overall U.S. retail sales this season. Adobe predicts that online U.S. retail sales will increase 8.4% year over year between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31 to $240.8 billion. Meanwhile, Deloitte projects that holiday retail sales will rise between 2.3% and 3.3% compared to last year, pushing sales to between $1.58 trillion and $1.59 trillion.