18% of Holiday Shopping To Go

Tallying the numbers after the last weekend before Christmas shows that U.S. consumers have completed 82 percent of their holiday shopping, spending on average $511 this season.

 

According to the fourth installment of the NRF 2004 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, consumers had completed 81.9 percent of their holiday shopping as of Sunday, December 19.

As of Sunday, 12 million consumers still had not started their holiday shopping, leaving many purchases and gift-buying to the last minute. However, 73 million consumers were completely finished with their shopping and another 75 million have completed more than three-fourths of their shopping.

“Though a large percentage of shopping has been completed, many sales have not been recorded due to heavy purchasing of gift cards, which are not recorded until merchandise is redeemed,” said Phil Rist, Vice President of BIGresearch, which conducted the survey.

“Most consumers will have their shopping completed by Christmas Day, but will head out after Christmas to take advantage of discounted merchandise and spend gift cards,” he estimates.