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Shoppers Spent about 30 Percent More than Planned
on Gifts for 2005 Holiday Season
Unity Marketing reports year-end Christmas gift-giving results
Stevens, PA January 25, 2006 — Christmas gift givers spent nearly 30 percent more than they planned buying Christmas and Hanukah gifts this past year. The average amount spent buying Christmas gifts was $870, as compared with estimated spending of $671 at the end of third quarter 2005. Consumers’ reported spending for holiday season 2005 was 5.3 percent more than the $826 they spent buying gifts during the holidays in 2004, according to Unity Marketing’s Gift Tracker survey of over 600 consumers conducted in early January 2006.
“Shoppers continue to say one thing and do another. While they were very moderate in their expectation for Christmas gift spending this past year, they actually spent more than in 2004 by 5 percent. The Christmas holiday shopping season of 2005 will go down as one of the more lackluster in recent years, despite the fact the holiday gift spending rose over last year. Shoppers simply didn’t have an excess of holiday cheer, which moderated their gift spending,” says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses — as well as the Classes.
Strong decorations spending and more self-gifting help to boost retailer results
Helping to pull up the results at retail this season were strong sales of seasonal and party decorations. Some 60 percent of shoppers bought decorations for their home, with candles, party decorations, Christmas tree balls and lights the most widely purchased items. The average amount spent buying decorations during the fourth quarter was $166, nearly 70 percent more than the average amount spent on seasonal decorations in the third quarter.
Also helping retailers pull up their numbers this past year were greater levels of self-gifting. Some 36 percent of gift shoppers said they frequently or occasionally purchased gifts for themselves while shopping for others. This compares to one-fourth of gifters who reported self-gifting during the third quarter.
Entertainment and recreation gifts were top of gifters’ list
The most popular gift this season, bought by 57 percent of gifters, were entertainment and recreational gifts, including books, toys, sporting goods, video/audio equipment, DVDs, CDs and video media, photographic equipment, computers, and personal electronics, notably iPods. When they bought in this category, gifters averaged $188 during the fourth quarter and they turned first to discount department stores, then to electronics specialty stores and book, record and video stores for their purchases.
The second most popular gift was clothing and fashion accessories, with discount department stores and traditional department stores being gifters favorite places to shop. Some 55 percent of gifters made a fashion purchase.
Gift certificates and gifts of cash were the third most popular gift item this season, bought by 52 percent of gifters who spent on average $159. Discount department stores, traditional department stores and electronics and appliance stores were the three leading sources for gift certificate givers.
About Gift Tracker Survey
Unity Marketing, on the forefront of market research on the gifting market, conducts a quarterly gift tracking study to measure the pulse of the gift consumer in a longitudinal survey of 500-600 gift buying consumers. Every quarter Unity tracks what gifts they bought during the past quarter, what gift occasions and holidays stimulated those purchases, how much they spent per holiday and occasion, where they bought gifts, the store and product brands they relied upon for gifts and their expectations for future purchases of gifts. The next Gift Tracker survey will be fielded early April 2006 to track 1Q2006 gift purchases.
Gift Tracker gives retailers and marketers that rely upon the gift market the ability to track the ups and downs in gift purchases in real-time and discover how their target market expects to spend their budgets for buying gifts over the next three months. In addition to the four quarterly tracking studies, marketers also receive a year-end summary of luxury gift consumers’ purchases and spending on the seven major gifting holidays, like Christmas, Mother’s Day and Easter and twelve gifting occasions, including birthdays, anniversary, wedding, friendship, showers, housewarming and other.
Categories included in the Gift Tracker survey include:
- Consumables, such as food, candy, wine, gift baskets, etc.
- Clothing and/or fashion accessories, such as handbags, shoes, wallets
- Jewelry and watches
- Personal care products, such as cosmetics, perfumes, bath products, etc.
- Home furnishings and household operations products, such as home furnishings, decorative accents, housewares, home textiles, china, glass and tableware, small household appliances, outdoor accents, etc.
- Giftables, such as flowers, candles, figurines, collectibles, greeting cards, stationery, seasonal decorations, and other popular gift items
- Entertainment and/or recreation goods, such as books, toys, sporting goods, video/audio, DVD’s and entertainment equipment, photographic equipment, computers, games, etc.
- Store Gift certificates and/or gifts of cash
- Gifts of experience, such as: spa treatments, dining and restaurants, vacations, trips, etc.
Find out more about Unity Marketing's Gift Tracker survey. |
