I finally finished wrapping the last present and I’m happy to say I am officially ready for Christmas and have spent all I’m going to spend—that is, unless I have to make a last minute trip to the grocery store to pick up some whipped cream or other forgotten item.
According to the National Retail Federation annual report, consumers plan to spend a total of around $1050.00 (on average) for Christmas this year. That will amount to a total of about 730 billion dollars (!) up 4 percent from last year.
“The U.S. economy is continuing to grow and consumer spending is still the primary engine behind that growth,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said.
Money spent will go towards presents ($659) non-gift holiday purchases like food and decorations ($227) and non-gift items for themselves ($162). I’d like to say I find the non-gift items for themselves category a bit ridiculous, but, in full disclosure, I did find a couple of nice things I bought for myself on Saturday. (It’s hard to pass up those kinds of deals, am I right?)
The NRF report also said that 91 percent of consumers are celebrating the winter holidays this year and 73 percent will use their smartphone or tablet to research purchases. I fall safely within these statistics, but it also said that 19 percent started their shopping in or before September and 39 percent started before November. I’m an outlier in those two stats. With Thanksgiving falling so late this year I did not start my shopping until December, and I felt a little rushed because of it.
I am a big online purchaser so when I read 56 percent will buy gifts online, I wasn’t surprised. If anything, I would have thought that number would have been higher. But 92 percent wanting to take advantage of free shipping was a no-brainer.
Thankfully, the holiday season isn’t just about stuff, stuff, and more stuff. I am happy to report 68 percent of us are engaging in some kind of charitable endeavor. Yay!
We, here at A. Alliance, want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year.
A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners. Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 14 years.