82% of Americans celebrate Christmas and 42% of those who celebrate will be shopping for gifts for six or more people, a new report finds.
However, spending by 53% of these consumers is expected to stay about the same as last year, while 28% plan to spend less.
YouGov’s US Christmas gifting trends report identifies that last year’s gifters spent $368, on average, and forecasts which gifts will be most popular among different demographic groups this year.
The report finds that:
- Of the 82% of Americans who celebrate Christmas, 42% typically buy gifts for 6 people or more. 11% buy for 11-20 people.
- Men are more likely to be last-minute shoppers than their female counterparts (36% vs 29%)
- 64% of Christmas gift buyers plan to make most of their purchases online (vs 36% planning to make most of their purchases in store)
- Gift cards and vouchers are the most popular gift to buy, slightly ahead of clothing (54% vs 52%), though not for Americans aged 18-34 (59% vs 41%)
- 39% of Christmas gift buyers cite word of mouth as their main source of inspiration, which is 27 percentage- points higher than the next highest source (12% for TV ads)
"Even in an era where social media advertising dominates, word of mouth will be the best way for companies to make their products the hottest Christmas gift of 2024,” said Kenton Barello, VP at YouGov. "Our data suggests that 18-34 year olds are twice as likely to get their gift ideas from word of mouth than they are from social media ads."
Combining global survey research with syndicated data in YouGov Profiles and YouGov BrandIndex, the report also uncovers how important sales are to Christmas shoppers and that Walmart, Nike, Bath & Body Works, and Samsung were some of the buzziest brands in their categories throughout December last year.
YouGov’s report is available for download here.
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