Majority of Holiday Shoppers Already Crossing Off Items on Gift List

By early November, more holiday shoppers than last year have made significant strides in purchasing presents.

November 16, 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Thanksgiving might still be more than a week away, but holiday shoppers have wasted no time jumping on exclusive holiday offerings from retailers thus far. According to the National Retail Federation’s Consumer Holiday Spending Survey conducted by Prosper Insights and Analytics, 56.6% of those celebrating the holidays had already started shopping by early November, up from 54.4% last year and the 49% who had started by this time in 2008. 2016 also marks the highest percentage seen in that timeframe.

“Thanksgiving weekend shopping has evolved tremendously over the past few years and can no longer be seen as the ‘start’ of the holiday season, though there’s no question it’s still important to millions of holiday shoppers and retailers of all shapes and sizes,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay, in a press release. “There is a real sea change happening in retail when it comes to the how, when, where and why of holiday shopping. Consumers today are looking for great prices and value-add promotions earlier than ever before, and retailers have answered these demands in several different ways already this holiday season.”

When breaking out the amount of shopping that’s been done by age group, 25 to 44 year olds have gotten out of the gates early. Specifically, 64.9% of 25 to 34 year olds and 62.1% of 35 to 44 year olds say they have already started shopping. Additionally, nearly six in 10 (58.4%) women have already started checking off their holiday lists, compared to 54.6% of men.

While many of the season’s best deals are yet to come, “there’s still plenty of shopping to be done over Thanksgiving weekend and in December when shipping promotions begin to ramp up. I expect we’ll see shifts all season long as it relates to shopping patterns,” said Shay.

NACS predicts that falling gas prices will fuel a robust holiday season this year.

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