WASHINGTON – More than half of consumers have already started their holiday shopping and nearly a quarter of purchases have already been made.
According to the annual survey released by the National Retail Federation (NRF), 56 percent of consumers asked during the first week of November had already begun their holiday shopping, about the same as the past few years. That was up from 48 percent who had already started at the same point a decade ago. On average, consumers had completed 24 percent of their shopping, the highest level in the history of the survey and up from 16 percent in 2009. Only 4 percent had finished shopping.
Those numbers are even higher than an earlier NRF survey that found 39 percent of holiday shoppers planned to start before November this year, saying they wanted to spread out their budgets and avoid both crowds and last-minute stress. Another 43 percent planned to start in November, and only 18 percent said they would wait until December.
“Consumers don’t wait for Thanksgiving or Black Friday anymore and neither do retailers,” Prosper Executive Vice President of Strategy Phil Rist said. “Retailers responded this year by offering promotions earlier than ever, with some rolling out holiday deals even before Halloween.”