Shoppers to purchase fewer gifts this Holiday season: Deloitte

By

Jennifer Braun

Published
Oct 25, 2022

Shoppers are set to reduce the number of gifts they purchase this holiday season. 

To maximize budgets and combat inflation, shoppers will purchase up to nine gifts for friends and family, compared to 16 last year, according to Deloitte’s 37th annual Holiday Retail Survey.

Gifts will also look a bit different this year with gift cards becoming the go-to gift, prompting an average spend of $252 this year, up 7% from 2021. Resale items will also be on the rise, with 32% of consumers planning to buy resale items, while nearly half (48%) of retail executives will sell refurbished or used goods to keep up with demand.

Online continues to be a holiday shopping mainstay, holding steady with a 63% share. Likewise, the use of smartphones for online holiday shopping is up from 52% in 2019 to 56% in 2022.

To get the best deals, 23% of holiday budgets will be spent by the end of October, compared to 18% in 2021. Consumers also will spend an average of 5.8 weeks shopping, compared to 6.4 weeks last year.

“High prices have holiday shoppers prioritizing their purchases, but there are bright lights throughout the season. Lower-income families feel more confident heading into the holidays, younger generations are embracing new retail formats, and retailers do not anticipate the issues with stockouts we saw last year,” said Nick Handrinos, vice chair, Deloitte LLP, and U.S. retail, wholesale and distribution and consumer products leader. 

“As consumers aim to be strategic about their purchases to outsmart inflation, retailers who can be flexible to meet consumers where they are will be more likely to build loyalty and profit from the holiday season and beyond.”

Deloitte also explores holiday travel intent to help provide a complete spending picture this holiday season. It found that as Americans reevaluate their spending for this holiday season, more are planning to stay home.

Less than one-third of survey respondents (31%) plan to travel between Thanksgiving and mid-January, down from 42% a year ago.  For those who will travel, reuniting and spending time with loved ones is the biggest motivation to travel in 2022.

Thanksgiving will be the busiest time for travel, but the trips are short: 8 out of 10 trips during Thanksgiving will be one week or shorter. While only 10% of holiday trips are planned for early January, nearly half of those will be longer than a week.

By age, only 22% of Americans 55 and older plan to travel, down from 36% in 2021. For both studies, Deloitte surveyed 4,986 consumers online between Sept. 6 and 14, 2022