According to the experts, holiday shoppers will be spending more this year. For 2022, 74% of consumers in PWC’s holiday outlook survey said they plan to spend just as much or more money this holiday season as they did last year. Fears of inflation and the rising costs of transportation, however, has led to less spending ahead of the holidays.
“Aware that they might have to stretch their holiday budgets, some have already started to cut back in the months leading up to the holiday season — on dining out, apparel and streaming services,” the PWC report said.
To gain an understanding of how U.S. consumers are reacting to the current market and how they plan to spend this holiday season, PWC asked 4,000 customers where and when they will shop and travel this year.
“This holiday season, 35% of shoppers plan to spend more than they did last year,” the report said. “High-earning young shoppers, these big spenders skew male and live in metropolitan areas. In addition to spending on their families, they will also spend more on themselves than the average holiday shopper.”
Overall, consumers will spend an average $1,430 on gifts, entertainment and travel this holiday season — a slight dip from last year’s average $1,447 budget.
On average, consumers will spend $452 of their holiday budgets on travel this year. Millennials will be traveling the most with an estimated $623 in travel spending, with Gen X consumers coming in second with an average $523 in travel spending. Gen Z consumers will be spending the least on travelling at an average $362 this year.
PWC reported that growing wealth has allowed many high-income shoppers to increase their budgets even more this year — though Millennials are the only generation that are spending more on average this year.
“Higher income households — whose purchasing power has increased in recent months as their personal incomes have grown — will spend considerably more this holiday than they did last year,” the report said. “Unlike middle- and lower-income households, their spending patterns over the last several months have remained unchanged, despite inflation.
“In fact, while holiday budgets for consumers at large remain essentially the same as last year, those with household incomes of $120,000 and above will increase holiday spending by 15%. They will spend $2,759 on gifts, entertainment and travel — close to double the $1,430 average.”
