Costumes Become The Highlight Of Holiday Spending In The United States

Consumers are still looking for goods.

Consumers want to use credit cards during holidays. Because many stores accept credit card consumption and the credit limit is low, consumers are willing to spend more money for themselves and buying gifts.

In 2010, the US economic trend was uncertain, coupled with the dual pressure of tightening household budgets, making consumers cautious when shopping.

The consumer confidence index is closely related to the labor market situation. Because the labor market does not show a good development trend, the consumer confidence index is only half the level before the recession.

The total cost of consumers in 2010 is reserved, while the amount of deposits continues to rise.

However, during the holiday season, consumer spending on clothing seems to be more optimistic than earlier this year.

Consumer spending on clothing purchased in 2010 has slightly rebounded. Data show that clothing retail consumption has been increasing for eight consecutive months.

Sales of clothing before school starts exceed expectations, and these continued sales momentum of clothing indicates that there is a better chance of sales in holiday clothing than in previous years.

After spending two years of tight clothing spending, consumers are ready to open their wallets and even use credit cards to buy goods for friends and family.

For those consumers who haven't bought clothes in recent years, clothing is most likely to become their first choice for holiday shopping.

Holiday gifts

According to the Cotton Corp lifestyle survey, consumers said they might consider more options for shopping locations and shopping patterns this year.

Consumers who plan to buy gifts at parity stores will drop from 70% in 2009 to 60% this year.

Because consumers are still sensitive to price, the decline in percentages shows that they are willing to make extra efforts to seek sales preferences anyway.

This year, retailers should boost their confidence from the following two obvious but important trends: the number of consumers who plan to buy something for themselves during holiday shopping increases, and the number of consumers planning to use credit cards.

After experiencing months of frugal life, consumers may feel or need to add some budget for holiday shopping.

Last year, consumption of cash and debit cards was the main way to pay for holiday gifts, but the use of credit cards increased this year.

Most consumers (54%) plan to use the credit card payment method to buy gifts, while in 2009 the same way consumers were 48%.

Retailers offer discount and store discount card, so that the maximum sales growth can be achieved, because this can often increase the average number of purchases and bring multiple purchases.

What do consumers buy?

Vouchers are still the most popular according to data from lifestyle surveys.

70% of consumers said they would buy vouchers this year, an increase of 62% over 2009.

67% of consumers also said they wanted to receive a voucher instead of a physical gift, which was also higher than that of 62% in 2009.

Clothing ranks second in the consumer holiday shopping list, compared with fourth in 2009.

This may be mainly due to the desire of people who restrain themselves to buy clothes this year.

33% of the 67% consumers who cut down on shopping expenses due to the recession have cut clothing consumption.

In addition, 66% of consumers said that they wanted to get holiday gifts as clothing. Obviously, clothing would be a real gift from two aspects, which are intended to buy for themselves and the types of gifts they would like to receive.

From the perspective of consumption level, clothing is also a large commodity that can afford to buy, and it is also a commodity category with larger sales promotion during the holiday season. These enhanced purchase intentions will give clothing retailers a very positive signal.

Among those who plan to buy clothes, their preferred products are cotton garments, such as T-shirts (52%), pajamas (44%), knitted pullovers (44%) and jeans (35%).

Apparel retailers should also see the growth trend of clothing sales brought by vouchers holders after the festival. More than half of consumers (54%) plan to buy vouchers in clothing stores, up 46% from 2009.

Among the consumers who plan to buy vouchers, the proportion of children who want to buy clothes shop vouchers is 57% and 43% respectively, and the proportion of female consumers and male consumers is 58% and 44% respectively.

What kind of shopping channel do consumers choose?

When most consumers still prefer to buy gifts rather than online shopping (69%:31%) in the physical store environment, the number of consumers willing to purchase gifts online is increasing gradually since the 90s of last century.

In this year's lifestyle survey, almost half of the consumers said they plan to buy holiday gifts online. These online shoppers began buying holiday gifts from January to October this year, significantly more than those who went shopping in the same period.

Online shopping gives consumers more opportunities to compare products and get concessions, so that they can buy more products at the same amount.

On average, consumers say that the most important reason for buying gifts online is convenience (65%), free delivery or sales promotion (47%), and easy comparison of similar products (39%).

Shopping preferences vary according to age. Consumers over the age of 13-34 are more willing to buy holiday gifts online than consumers over 35, because they can make better choices on many online products.

Rational consumption

In 2010, consumers' holiday shopping will show greater flexibility than last year, but planning ahead, commodity prices and clothing are important considerations.

Most consumers (73%) said they would plan their specific gifts before going shopping.

This is a trend that has been emerging in recent years to deal with the unknown economic situation. This also makes practical gifts, such as clothing, a major consideration for gift giving. They hope to send gifts that friends and family really need.

The other annual trend that follows the holiday season is to wait for discounts.

66% of consumers said they were waiting for clothes to cut prices before buying them.

To get the best price performance, consumers will have to compare this year's holidays and increase their budget flexibility with credit cards.