Holiday Spending Trends
American Express recently released their Spending and Saving tracker-- an overview of the spending habits of American consumers (and not just card holders): http://bit.ly/tdAbzD
- Black Friday still reigns supreme as the holiday of deals. 37% more shoppers will be venturing out the weekend following Thanksgiving: 52% of Americans.
- People are shopping smarter and utilizing trends in technology: 28% plan to use rewards points as part of a smarter spendingstrategy while 19% will be tapping their social media networks for those prized coupons.
- We're dropping more dough: Americans surveyed are spending $121 more than last year
- We're budgeting better: About half (48%) of Americans surveyed expect to stick to their budget
- Gift Cards are the way to go: They're topping the list of gifts at 58% (up from 2010's 53%)...and while 60% of women say they intend to purchase said gift cards, only 55% of men are going that route. Keeping our fingers crossed that they're picking something good.... Who says guys aren't thoughtful gift givers?
- Gone is the fruitcake: "Re-Gifting" is actually down. Out of those surveyed, only 7% said yes to re-gifting, versus 16% who admitted to this last year