Merchant Beware: Will inflation be this year’s Ebenezer Scrooge?

Latest survey by Prodege gives merchants tips on how to survive this holiday shopping season

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., November 7, 2022 — Prodege, a cutting-edge consumer and insights platform, today released its latest eBook with the results from its holiday consumer trends survey. 

The holiday season is already here as brands and retailers prepare for what appears to be an early start to the shopping season. The survey gauged this year’s top gifting categories, considerations when shopping and holiday spending habits across 1,008 respondents in the U.S. 

The results of this survey offer brands and retailers actionable insights into the current perspectives on holiday shopping, entertainment and travel plans. Prodege is always assessing, listening to, and evaluating current consumer insights and trends and the 2022 Holiday Survey results reveal that inflation and gas prices are the main considerations for consumers when it comes to planning their holiday shopping this year.

Across all generations surveyed, inflation and gas prices were the top considerations for consumers when it comes to holiday shopping this year. Taking advantage of Black Friday deals, finding retailers and brands that offer free shipping and returns, or scaling back who you buy gifts for and better budgeting are amongst some of the ways shoppers are planning to combat inflation this holiday season. 

Despite inflation and gas price concerns, many aren’t predicting a big change year over year. Seven-in-ten consumers are planning on spending the same or less than last year, with less affluent households more likely to spend less than last year.

Key Findings:

• Inflation and gas prices are very or extremely important when thinking about the upcoming holiday shopping, especially for those earning less than $50k – giving reason for shoppers to buy online with free shipping to avoid spending on fuel.
• Those who are earning up to $100k are more concerned about inflation than gas prices. 
• When it comes to traveling, those earning less than $50k cited inflation as the main reason they will not be traveling this year. 
• Gen X (38%) and Baby Boomers (40%) were more likely to feel that inflation and gas prices were extremely important considerations when thinking about holiday shopping versus Millennials (28%) or Gen Z (25%).
• Gen Z is considerably less worried about inflation and COVID safety precautions than the other generations.

“In order to stay competitive and relevant in this changing environment and market, brands and retailers must have a sense of how, where and why consumers are shopping and what their priorities are when it comes to purchasing,” said Prodege Chairman and CEO Chuck Davis. “Our survey results provide valuable insights that will allow businesses to evaluate new strategies and tailor them to current consumer demands as the holiday season approaches.”

For consumers holiday shopping at retail stores, the top five motivators for shopping included 

• Offering more cash back for purchases
• Sale prices for preferred customers
• Offers/incentives/bonuses for pickup in-store
• Special items available online only 
• Having more frequent doorbuster sales for in-store shopping. 

More information about holiday shopping trends and what this means for retailers and brands can be found in the Prodege 2022 Holiday eBook. 

Prodege conducted an online survey using their DIY programming solution, Pollfish, among 1,000 respondents aged 18-65 yrs representative of the US population (Gen Z (18-25 yrs) n=109, Millennial (26-41 yrs) n=364, Gen X (42-57 yrs) n=355, Boomer (58-67 yrs) n=180).  The survey fielded 8/26-8/27/22.  Findings are reported with a 95% confidence level; margin of error is +/- 3%.

Read the full release here!