Survey Unveils Holiday Shopping Trends, Forces
Most U.S. consumers believe inflation will have a somewhat negative impact on their spending, and one in five say the presidential election will almost certainly have an impact, according to Tinuiti.
As summer comes to a close, a new research report explores the forces and trends that will affect the holiday shopping season this year and what advertisers can expect from U.S. shoppers.
Performance marketing firm Tinuiti in July investigated how shoppers are feeling and planning ahead of the holiday season by surveying more than 1,000 U.S. adults who said they were going to shop for holiday gifts this year.
Some key findings from the firm’s research, dubbed “2024 Holiday Shopping Trends,” included:
- 54% of holiday shoppers plan to spend about the same amount as last year, while 25% said more.
- Among Gen Z, 34% expect to spend more on holiday gifts overall this year, while 47% expect to spend more online.
- 72% of respondents believe the rate of inflation will have at least a somewhat negative impact on their holiday spending. At the same time, about one in five holiday shoppers believe the U.S. presidential election and its outcome are very likely or almost certain to impact their spending.
- 60% of respondents said they plan to start shopping for holiday gifts before Thanksgiving, with a little over half of that group saying they will start shopping in October or earlier; 48% expect to do half or more of their holiday shopping before Thanksgiving.
- Among Gen Z, 59% expect to do half or more of their holiday shopping over the Cyber Five, the five-day period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. For Baby Boomers, that rate drops to 39%.
- Social media is the top channel for holiday gift discovery and Facebook is the most popular social platform overall for holiday shopping inspiration. Facebook ranked fifth for this purpose among Gen Z, however, falling behind TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest.
- Traditional television is the second most common channel for holiday product discovery with 34% of respondents saying that they had heard of a product on TV that they later went on to purchase. Another 18% said that they had discovered holiday gifts through streaming services.
- Gen Z is more likely than older generations to self-gift this year. While 25% of all respondents said they would buy holiday gifts for themselves this year, that rate was 39% among Gen Z.
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- The self-gifting rate for Baby Boomers was a little less than half that for Gen Z.
- Although just 3% of holiday shoppers said they are planning to use ChatGPT specifically when they are shopping online for gifts this year, consumers were much more likely to say they would use AI-powered tools generally for their holiday shopping. In fact, 54% of all respondents said they would use AI tools in some capacity as they shop for holiday gifts.
- The least popular categories for holiday gifts were automotive, sporting goods, and health and wellness products. Although, health and wellness products fared better among Gen Z than older generations.
- The widest gap in intent to purchase between Gen Z and Baby Boomers was for beauty products, which 55% of Gen Z shoppers expect to purchase, compared to just 14% of Baby Boomers.
- Although a larger share of holiday shoppers expects to spend less in-store this year than more, brick-and-mortar purchases will still play a sizable role for most consumers. 29% of respondents plan to do at least a majority of their holiday shopping in stores, while another 30% expect to shop equally online and in store.
- Temu and Shein are popular online shopping destinations for holiday gifts, particularly among younger respondents. Among all online shoppers, 23% plan to use Temu, but that rate jumps to 30% among Gen Z. Shein sees an even larger lift from 15% among all online shoppers to 36% among Gen Z.