Holiday Shopping Season Starts Strongly in USA

The ceremonial kickoff to the holiday season started with a bang, according to the findings of a new National Retail Federation (NRF) survey in the USA. The third instalment of the NRF 2003 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, indicates that 71.8% of consumers were out shopping on Black Friday weekend. (The term Black Friday was coined because, traditionally, the day after Thanksgiving was the day that retailers went from being in the red or in debt to being in the black or making a profit.)

The top gifts purchased last weekend included books, CDs, DVDs, videos or video games (39.3%); clothing or clothing accessories (35.6%); toys (31.6 %) and home décor or home-related furnishings (20.5%).

More than half of consumers have begun their holiday shopping, but they are not as far along as they were last year. According to the survey, the average consumer has completed 36.9% of their holiday shopping, whereas last year, consumers had finished 38.7% of their shopping by December 1.

As a whole, consumers have completed less of their shopping than they had last year at this time, said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. This could mean that the best is yet to come in the rest of December.

This year, one in four consumers plans to purchase electronics or computer-related accessories as holiday gifts. According to the survey, the most popular electronic item this year will be DVD players, with 8.4% of consumers planning to purchase one as a gift and an additional 7.3% planning to purchase one for themselves.

Consumers purchased their holiday gifts from a variety of retailers last weekend. While 43.3% visited discounters, 29.4% purchased from department stores and 24% shopped at specialty stores. Also, as expected, many consumers are choosing to shop online this year; 31.2% of shoppers purchased holiday merchandise online over the weekend.

NRF continues to project an increase of 5.7% in holiday sales this year over last year, bringing estimated revenues of $217.4 billion this holiday season. The first installment of the Consumer Intentions and Actions survey revealed that consumers plan to spend over $670 this year on holiday gifts, decorations, cards, confectionery, and food, up from $649 last holiday.

The third instalment of the NRF 2003 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey was designed to gauge consumer behavior and shopping trends related to the winter holiday season and Black Friday weekend. The survey was conducted for NRF by BIGresearch. The poll of 5,668 consumers was conducted from November 27-29. The consumer poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.0 percent.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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