It may be hard to believe. But many U.S. consumers have begun holiday shopping. And we are in October!! Let’s look at when some U.S. consumers start 2017 holiday shopping.
Here are some related shopping posts from past holiday periods. Shopping List: Part 1. Shopping List: Part 2. Do Retailers Offer What We Want During Holiday Shopping? Are YOU a Gift Splurger?
U.S. Consumers Start Holiday Shopping Earlier
Each year, U.S. consumers begin their holiday earlier and earlier. The main reasons? Pre-holiday discounts encourage shopping. Traditional Black Friday shopping is not as popular. Consumers can spread out their spending. And there are other reasons!!
Here are more insights from Peter Roesler, writing for Inc.:
“Tradition says the holiday shopping season starts after Thanksgiving. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This may be true for most U.S. consumers. Yet, more people now start shopping earlier. As much as people complain about seeing Christmas items on shelves too soon, data suggest there many shoppers do look for gifts before the ‘official start’ of the holiday season.”
“According to a RetailMeNot study, nearly half (45 percent) of U.S. consumers say they will start shopping before November 1. In fact, many have already started. A quarter (25 percent) of respondents said they planned to start before October. And 12 percent started holiday shopping this summer!!!!
“In the RetailMeNot survey, nearly three of five (59 percent) women said they planned to begin holiday shopping before Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend. This compares with less than half (48 percent) of men. Deals are important because consumers need to make the most of limited budgets. When asked how they would financially prepare, 47 percent of shoppers surveyed said they would like to save money in advance. 15 percent said they would work overtime ahead of the holidays. It’s easy to see why consumers would value anything that saves them money on gifts.”
Click the image to read more.
Top Shopper Priorities for Holiday Season 2017
Due to improvements in the economy, early forecasts point to a good 2017 holiday shopping season. Nonetheless, retailers still must be prepared for these question. What are shopper priorities?
Consider these comments by Stephanie Pandolph, for Business Intelligence. Also, look at the chart below.
“In a survey of 8,000 consumers by Trustpilot, 62% of respondents listed price as the most important consideration for holiday shopping. Other top factors include customer service, shipping, and product availability. Retailers will need to have plenty of promotions to fully reap the benefits of this high-volume time. Price-conscious consumers are apt to wade through a large pool of seasonal deals.”
“A survey by CPC Strategy sheds some light on how consumers factor in price when deciding where to shop this season. Nearly half said total price at checkout, including shipping, will be the most important factor when choosing retailer this holiday season. Customers also plan to price check while shopping in-store, with 32% saying they will research on Amazon and 23% turning to Google.”
I always found it interesting that before thanksgiving is even here, you already see stores stocking the shelfs with Christmas decorations. But with more and more retailers putting out sales i guess this will continue to happen. Everybody likes to think that they are getting a good deal on the items they are buying so i defiantly can see that retailmenot study being accurate.
Personally, I think that the fact that it holiday shopping is becoming earlier each year is ruining the “joy” or certain feel to the holiday season. By few companies extending this major shopping period over few months just for consumers to get a huge bargain is something that businesses are now going to have to compete for in the later seasons. I am not surprised that pricing is the most important aspect to consumers when choosing a gift. However, on the other side this early extension of holiday sales can be a good thing for certain businesses, because of how crowded most of the stores tend to get during the actual season. It just comes down to the competition of who will be able to run the sales that early and who won’t, because if consumers are shopping early they will only go to the stores that have the sales, and the ones that don’t may lose business.
Chinese customers began holiday shopping now as well! Yes, it’s me. Honestly, I did lots of researches about the discount on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and I found I could enjoy a lower discount today and receive my products two months before! How can I hesitate? As a customers, I have a ideal product list, but on that exact holiday, I might not buy all the products on the list because the total is too high. On the contrary, if there is a smart business offering the same discount to me from now on, I may buy all the products one by one. Thus, the businesses could consider about spreading their discount so as to stimulate customers to keep purchasing. Besides, it is difficult for customers to choose an exact mall to but since the discounts are similar on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Start offering discount to your potential customers, then you can take advantages over your competitors.
I think more and more people are shopping earlier because there continue to be faster and more convenient ways to shop. Since it is so easy to click and order something online, there is almost no reason to not order something in advance if there is a good deal. Regarding product availability as being a top priority, it will be interesting see what happens with the iPhoneX since delays are expected.
Strangely enough, this article does not surprise me because my own family begins holiday shopping extremely early. My mom had asked me to tell her things I wanted for Christmas as early as September. Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping simply does not cut it anymore because the prices are not as great as they used to be nowadays. Since price is generally the most important factor to consumers, it makes sense that buying gifts early when they are on sale or discounted is so popular now. I believe shopping early is smart so consumers can ration their money over a period of a few months. After all, by the time the holidays come, there will be less shopping to worry about!
As mentioned by some previous comments, I am not surprised that shoppers will go almost as far back as the summer to shop for the holidays. I am a believer that one should not participate in Christmas activities until after Thanksgiving, but I am not unaware of those who do celebrate at the beginning of fall or November. Now, I am hesitant if I like or dislike the fact that discounts are earlier into the year because the lowering of price is always favorable, but the excitement loses its luster. However, I am happier that I will be aware about discounts during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sooner so I can prepare myself during this time-constraining period. Having firms be more active about online shopping is smart because you can see that they are corresponding to the current trend of the large integration of technology into people’s lives. Stephanie Pandolph for Business Intelligence says that push-pricing will raise sales to new heights during 2017’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which I am not surprised about.
From reading this article it is no surprise that people have already begun shopping before November. Due to discounts already being enforced by stores, the awareness of sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday are less exciting because you do not think you would get as good of deal that you are getting now.
In all honesty, I am a victim of shopping early for Christmas. I think a lot of people do this because a lot of the good/valuable decorations go early. Also, there are plenty of discounts at this time which many people try to take advantage of. People don’t want to deal with the hassle of getting discounts at a busy time like Black Friday/Cyber Monday. At least for me (personally).
You are not a “victim.” You are a smart shopper.
Going to Roosevelt Field during the Christmas time is a crazy experience. A massive mall filled to the brim with people trying to save a buck buying gifts for their loved ones. It doesn’t surprise me that much that people would want to avoid that. People fall for such easy pricing tricks as well. $80 may be too much for a product but put the word sale next to it and people lose their minds.
From my point of view, pricing is definitely the most important factor when consumers make decision to purchase gifts. Indeed, early business is a better idea for a lot of business in different situations.Take Chinese market as an example, crowded shopping is normally a bad service experience for customers. With this grace period, customers could get an early deal and thus help business reduce the holiday sales pressure.
It is interesting article that show us, many consumers in the US seems to like shopping earlier. In the most of them, consumer believe that they will have a shopping list that to know what they want to buy. By compare the price of each product, and the return policy, they might would like to buy earlier, because in the few years’ experience, they might find the hottest products most sold out in during the Black Friday Sale week. So, it is not a bad choice that they purchased earlier.
This article is particularly interesting reading it after Black Friday in the midst of holiday online shopping’s most popular time. Especially now knowing that price is consumers top priority across the board, I am having a lot of shoppers remorse but more so for not starting as early in the year when I only have started holiday shopping now.