As much as we’d love to hold on to the thoughts of summer, a lot of people already have the holidays on their mind. For many people, that means shopping for gifts.
According to a new RetailMeNot survey, 54% of shoppers plan to start their purchases way before Black Friday/Cyber Monday, with 45% shopping before November 1st, and another 25% planning to start this month. If you think that’s crazy, 12% of Americans already started shopping for the holidays over the summer.
And all that shopping is going to take a bite out of people’s wallets. Overall, shoppers plan to spend on average about $482 on gifts for the holidays, with $330 of that going towards their children, $196 for their significant other, $105 for parents, $90 for siblings and $57 on their best friends. But of course gifts aren’t the only things folks will be spending money on during the season. They also plan to spend about $164 on food, $160 on lodging and $148 on entertainment, which is an increase in all areas.
So, when it comes to gifts, what is everyone going to be spending their month on this year. Well, the survey finds:
- 53% are looking for clothing or shoes
- 51% are interested electronics like the iPhone 8 or Google Home
- 32% are buying the latest toys
- 16% of shoppers are going to spend on jewelry
- 15% are interested in new restaurants/entertainment
- 15% of consumers will spend money on travel
Source: RetailMeNot