U.S. Consumers Complete Just Half of Purchases, Survey Finds

(IDEX Online News) – U.S. holiday shoppers had completed half (49.9%) of their shopping on average as of December 9, slightly less than the 56.5 percent who had completed their gift-buying by the same point time last year, according to the National Retail Federation’s latest holiday survey.

This bodes well for retailers who are preparing for a large holiday shopping weekend to come, with 32 million or 14.0 percent say they have not even started, while another 20 million, or 8.9 percent say they are already finished.

“There’s no question that the shortened holiday season has put both retailers and consumers in a rush to make the most out of the time that’s left before the big day,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay.

“A late Thanksgiving that fell in place with Hanukkah, and the shorter season overall, make these last two weekends of utmost importance for all holiday shoppers,” said Pam Goodfellow, Director of Prosper’s Consumer Insights. “Given the tremendous growth in online shopping this holiday season, retailers can expect to see much excitement around their multichannel offerings, especially free shipping deals that guarantee Christmas delivery – leaving much of the footwork out of it for busy Americans.”