This holiday, we’ll be showrooming

It isn’t even Halloween yet but more than half of us – 51 percent – have already mapped out our holiday shopping plans this year, making lists for gifts we will buy with cash we already have socked away, according to Accenture’s annual study.

The Accenture Holiday Shopping Survey predicts consumers will spend an average of $582 on holiday shopping this season;  23 percent will part with more than $750. Half (52 percent) expect to increase their spending by $250 or more.

A mere  5 percent of us will be extravagant — and only 8 percent expect to splurge.

What I find fascinating is the notion of showrooming. That is the term for finding a product in a bricks-and-mortar store, searching online for the best price and then making the purchase electronically. According to the study, 56 percent of shoppers are planning that strategy — and 27 percent of them say they would likely make the purchase online, using their smartphone or tablet, while they are still out shopping.

That’s not welcome news for the folks who actually stock the shelves and explain products    to shoppers, only to have them save a few bucks buying online from merchants who have fewer buildings to maintain — and fewer human beings to pay.

Still that yearning to dash to the store hasn’t faded away altogether. This year’s survey also found that more consumers — 53 percent — plan to shop on Black Friday, sharply reversing a three-year trend. In 2011, the survey concluded that only 44 percent of respondents were interested in shopping on Black Friday, down from 47 percent in 2010 and 52 percent in 2009.

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