Holiday Shoppers Plan To Spend 4.4% More This Year.

American shoppers plan to spend 4.4 percent more on their holiday gifts this year than last, giving retailers — especially mass retailers — a reason to be optimistic about their biggest season’s sales. Consumers plan to spend an average of $863 per household, up from $828 in 2000, according to the first in a series of holiday shopping surveys by the International Mass Retail Association.

The holiday looks especially good for discount department stores and category dominant stores. Discount department stores remain the number one planned shopping destination, as they have been throughout the year. This year, four-fifths of American consumers (82%) say they plan to shop at these stores for their non-food holiday items. Last year, holiday sales at discount department stores outpaced the average, increasing 7 percent over 2000 compared with an average of 3 percent for all retailers (U.S. Department of Commerce data).

Nearly three-fifths (58%) of American consumers say they plan to shop at category dominant stores this year. Conventional department stores were their third choice (54%), followed by specialty stores (48%), catalog retailers (24%) and the Internet (16%). The percentage of consumers planning to buy gifts over the Internet remained unchanged from last year, which could bode well for brick and mortar retailers, according to IMRA’s survey report. Each of the retail categories gained some points in popularity this year at the expense of “other types of stores”— single mom-and-pop boutique stores, which suffered a 25 percent drop in popularity (36% to 11%).

IMRA released the survey results on November 5 at the association’s annual news conference on the holiday season retail outlook. At the briefing in New York City, mass retail executives and a prominent retail economist gave their perspectives on holiday season sales and hot products.

IMRA surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers by telephone from October 19 to October 21. The survey was conducted by MarketFacts.

As usual, consumers are planning to buy toys for children this year (27%). The number continues to be higher among younger adults, who are most likely to have young children. Two–fifths of adults ages 25-34 and 31 percent of those ages 35-44 plan to purchase toys as holiday gifts.

Many people say they plan to buy apparel (56%), but the IMRA report notes that often those surveyed will answer “apparel” rather than “do not know” to the question about what they plan to purchase. Consumers are also looking at a variety of other gifts for their holiday shopping lists: consumer electronics (TVs, stereos, CD players), cited by 16 percent; books or music (14%); home furnishings (9%); cosmetics and fragrances (8%); computer accessories/software/games (6%); jewelry (5%); hardware/power tools (5%); recreation and sporting goods (5%); and crafts (2%). About 1 percent cite spirits or food, and computers are on the list for 1 percent, too. Five percent plan to give gift certificates or cash. More shoppers this year than last have not yet decided what they will give — 21 percent, compared with 16 percent in 2000. This figure is consistently higher for older Americans and men.

The IMRA survey in October also looked at when consumers plan to start and to finish shopping:

Plan to start shopping:

Before November 31.4%

First Half of November 18.6%

Day After Thanksgiving 8.0%

Second Half of November 9.8%

First Half of December 10.9%

Last Half of December 3.9%

Christmas Eve 1.2%

Plan to Complete Majority of Shopping:

Before November 4.7%

First Half of November 5.6%

Day After Thanksgiving 4.5%

Second Half of November 13.3%

First Half of December 28.5%

Last Half of December 17.4%

Christmas Eve 18.1%

IMRA will conduct weekly surveys to on holiday shopping starting the week of Thanksgiving.