Only 12% of customers have finished their holiday shopping.
Barely more than 50% of adults surveyed expected to have their holiday shopping completed by Dec. 20, with many expecting to be shopping right up to Christmas Eve. Still others expect to miss the deadline altogether.
That’s according to the annual survey by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics.
“Even though many consumers got a head start with holiday shopping early in the season, millions more are leaving their gift buying to the last minute and beyond,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “Stores will be packed the next few days as consumers rush to complete their shopping, and anybody ordering online at this point should probably choose in-store pickup as their delivery option.”
The survey found that only 12% of consumers had finished their holiday shopping as of Dec. 12, with shoppers having completed an average of only 61%. A total of 55% expected to be done purchasing gifts by Dec. 20, with 6% saying they will still be shopping Sunday and 5% saying their final gifts won’t be bought until after Christmas.
The survey found that 53% of consumers — about 126 million people — plan to shop this weekend on “Super Saturday,” the last Saturday before Christmas.
Of consumers who had completed half or less of their shopping, 42% said they were still deciding what to buy. Waiting for requests, other financial priorities and being too busy with other activities were each cited by 26% for the delay.
As of December 12, last-minute shoppers planned to purchase their gifts online (51%), at department stores (41%), discount stores (26%), clothing or accessories stores (21%), electronics stores (18%), local/small businesses (14%) and grocery/supermarket stores (14%).
“Similar to what we saw over Thanksgiving weekend, consumers are leveraging their smartphones to guide them on their final purchases for the holidays,” Prosper Executive Vice President of Strategy Phil Rist said. “Retailers this year have needed to offer great deals online and encourage young people making purchases through their smartphones to take advantage of offerings such as buy online and pick up in store.”
The survey found 54% of consumers purchased clothing or clothing accessories, 39% toys, 39% gift cards, 35% books, movies and other media, 25% consumer electronics or computer-related accessories and 25% food or candy.
Among consumers receiving gift cards, 41% say they will wait for a good sale to maximize the value of the card but 21% will use their cards as quickly as possible and 20% will save them for a rainy day.
For consumers who miss this weekend’s deadline, 47% plan to take advantage of after-Christmas sales in store, and 46% say they’ll plan to do the same online.
The survey, which asked 7,212 consumers about holiday shopping plans, was conducted Dec. 4 -12 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points
