Oct 21, 2009

Holiday shopping top 10 trends: Food, group gifts, eggnog partiesBy Mercedes CardonaDailyFinance.com

Sure, consumers are sick of bad news and just want to go shopping — but they’re still waiting for the recession’s other shoe to drop.

And that means that this holiday season, shoppers will be very practical: giving food and other basics, cutting friends and co-workers off the gift list, and even using the gift cards they got for birthdays and graduations to pay for their holiday shopping. Analyzing new survey data, the National Retail Federation identifies 10 holiday shopping trends:

1. Americans aren’t feeling an end to the recession. Regardless of the stock market’s recovery or of economists’ opinions, the average holiday shopper will spend $682.74, a 3.2 percent drop from last year’s $705.01, according to a new NRF survey. “They’re going to be watching what the unemployment [rate] is doing, and that’s going to be their monitor about when the recession is over,” said Phil Rist, executive VP of market research firm BIGResearch, which did the polling.

2. This year, it’s all about the economy. Two-thirds of families say the economic situation will affect their holiday spending, said NRF VP Ellen Davis. Many will give group gifts to couples and families, and more practical gifts; some are making their own, Davis said. In this year’s survey, the NRF added a question about thrift stores; the 11 percent of shoppers who mentioned them was a higher percentage than the group expected. Another surprise: many shoppers say they plan to use gift cards to pay for holiday shopping.

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