Dive Brief:
- Signaling a return to brick-and-mortar shopping, 47% of shoppers plan to shop in physical stores this holiday season, according to a new Experian survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers. While half of baby boomers said they will shop in physical stores, 46% of Gen Xers and millennials, as well as 44% of Gen Zers, said the same.
- A third of baby boomers plan to shop online via desktop or laptop over the holiday season, followed by a quarter of Gen Xers, 23% of millennials and 20% of Gen Zers. By contrast, 36% of Gen Zers will make their holiday purchases via smartphones or tablets, followed by millennials (31%), Gen Xers (29%) and baby boomers (17%).
- This holiday season shoppers are focused on savings and more likely to shop at discount and mass retailers, per the report.
Dive Insight:
While online shopping is still part of the holiday season, many consumers are headed back in stores. “[T]he high amount of online shopping that we saw during the pandemic is starting to return to pre-pandemic behaviors,” according to Experian.
Experian’s report is yet another indicator that some consumers plan to spend more on their holiday purchases during this year’s holiday season. More than half (52%) of baby boomers and 45% of Gen X shoppers plan to spend the same on their holiday purchases this year as they did last year, but 36% of Gen Z and millennial shoppers will spend more this year, per the report.
Other research suggests that consumers will spend more this year and do their holiday shopping in stores. A PwC report released earlier this month projects that consumers will spend $1,638 per shopper this holiday season, up 7% year over year. Nearly half (45%) of consumers will shop in stores over the holidays, up 2% from 2023, PwC found.
On the other hand, Adobe Analytics last month forecast that online U.S. retail sales would grow 8.4% year over year to $240.8 billion between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31. In an August report, Adobe also projected that more than half (53%) of online holiday sales would occur via mobile devices.
