Factoids

Britt Beemer America's Research Group articles most recent first Furniture Buying Index Falls in May Consumers Shift Spending To What They Need, Not What They Want Furniture Buying Index Drops Two More Points; Wal Mart Expands Home Furnishings In Midst of Sluggish Furniture Sales Beemer - Many Retailers In Free Fall After Disappointing December August Retail Sales Surge; Home Furnishings, Accessories Lag behind Expert Predicts Back-to-School Spending to Grow Meagerly in 2007 Retail Shopping Takes A Holiday Early Indications Are For A Frugal First Quarter Independent Retailers Outperformed Chain Stores In December Britt Beemer Lowers Forecast of Christmas Retail Sales to 2.7% Rise Over Last Year; Lack of “Must Have” Item to Blame Want To Drive Shoppers Away? Decorate Stores Less and Don’t Say “Merry Christmas” 2006 Q4 Shoppers Study Revealing; Cyber Monday a Hoax, Biggest Retail Push Will Be After December 15th 10 Trends For Retail Christmas 2006 Survey; Parents Cite High Gas Prices As Primary Reason For Limiting Back To School Spending Families Reduce Summer Spending As Gas Prices Rise Or Was It? New Survey Casts Doubt On Rosie Black Friday Survey; Bargain Hunters Drive June Results Top 10 Retail Stores For April; Discounts Drive Traffic Survey Says Americans Extremely Optimist About The Future 37% Of Shoppers Noticed Less Christmas Decorations In Stores; Spent Less As A Result America’s Research Group; Shopping Levels Increasing But Still Expected To Be Lackluster 3.2% Over 2003 Lack Of Hot New Product Weighing Heavily On Holiday Shopping Survey Of Thanksgiving Weekend Shoppers; "We're Not Impressed"; 45% Say Discounts Not Enough Britt Beemer’s Christmas 2004 Sales Forecast; 19% Will Spend More Since Bush Was Reelected Seven Things Your Store’s Appearance Tells Your Customers Britt Beemer Cites Convenience As Key To Drawing Male Shoppers Beemer Lowers Christmas Sales Projection to 4.2% Increase This Year Compared To His Earlier 4.8% Sales Increase survey 31.0% of Americans Who Planned to Shop Thanksgiving Weekend Did Not Get Around To It Study Shows 11% Increase In Consumer Spending For Appliance, Electronics, Computers Britt Beemer Predicts 4.8% Increase In Holiday Spending survey Furniture Leads All Categories For Shopping Levels Over Labor Day Weekend survey Consumers Plan to Spend 10% More on Back to School Furniture Buying Index Up One Point Buying furniture is on consumers’ minds, but not a top priority Shopping Is Not a Big Priority for Many Americans The Incredible Shrinking Customer Base How Loyal is Your Customer? The Loyalty American Consumers Have Towards Brand Products

By Britt Beemer (bio)
America's Research Group

Lack of big savings offers of 50% off have reduced consumer spending in two very critical areas – consumers buying something nice for themselves and one third of America acknowledging spending less this shopping season. With many consumers taking vacations starting next weekend, two out of five Americans have completed their shopping by Sunday night.

Other Highlights

1. A year ago 15.5% had barely started their shopping while just 9.0% have barely started this year. This year 40.6% are virtually done while last year only 26.0% were this far along.

2. Of those just starting now, 49.8% expect to be finished by December 24th while only 32.3% were planning to finish that late last Christmas.

3. Shoppers are going to more stores this shopping season with 32.6% going to 6-15 stores compared to only 20.5% going to that many stores.

4. Shoppers were buying this weekend at strong levels of 43.3%, but last year 53.6% shopped this weekend.

5. Target was the big gainer this weekend with 30.3% compared to 22.7% last year this same weekend. Wal-Mart was the overall winner with 53.4% of consumers shopping there, but last year 61.0% of consumers shopped at Wal-Mart on this weekend.

6. Toys remained at the #1 position for shoppers again this weekend with 41.5% of consumers buying at toy stores compared to 38.3% last year. Video games remain strong with gains from last year comparing 22.8% to 20.1%. Electronics, which had a big weekend after Thanksgiving, was flat with 20.5% compared to 20.9% shoppers visiting there last year.

7. Lack of big savings offers has lessened the number of people buying something nice for themselves since last year 42.8% had by this time, but only 36.4% have so far this year.

8. Consumers feel they will spend more this year at a rate of 44.5% compared to 34.6% spending more last year at this time.

9. If consumers don’t see 50% off this shopping season, 34.8% will buy less expensive items or will buy fewer items this Christmas.

10. Already 32.8% have purchased gift cards this Christmas while nearly 10% more expect to buy them. Last year this number doubled in the last 10 days so it is likely 20% will buy gift cards breaking last year’s number of 48%.

11. Only 30.7% of gift cards are under $25 this year compared to nearly half last year.