National Retail Foundation is projecting 2015 holiday sales to rise 3.7 percent, reaching USD 630.5 Billion dollars, of which USD 105 Billion Dollars is going to be online sales.  Retailers report seeing more than 20 percent of sales being generated in the last 61 Days with Jewelry stores stating as high as 26 percent of the sales are generated during the holiday season. On average Holiday Shopping has seen an upward trend, with Holiday shoppers in 2014 spending an average of USD 802 on gifts, decorations, food and more, compared to USD 767 spent in 2013. Mobile sales reached a new high of 27 percent of online retail sales.

Research shows that free shipping at 86 percent is the most sought after offer from retailers, after price-offs, According to Shop.org’s 2014 e-Holiday Survey  92 percent of retailers surveyed form of free standard shipping during the holiday season with guaranteed Christmas delivery. Among consumers looking for Holiday season Deals 25 Million Consumers stated they would use Mobile only for shopping on Cyber Monday. It,s not surprising that 58 percent of marketers increasing spend on Mobile are planning to invest advertising dollars in paid search to drive mobile shopping (52 percent), mobile email optimization (46 percent) and paid search to drive store shopping (37 percent).

 

Gift Cards are the most requested Gift item for the season with a total spend of USD 31.7 billion expected to be on Gift cards. Electronics, Clothing Stores, Appliances and Personal care Stores account for nearly 30 percent of Retail Sales during the Holiday Season. 

Among the factors that influence the shopper decision the most during holiday season, the most important factor is Low Prices, followed by Free Shipping, with 90 percent and 86 percent of shoppers ranking  Low Prices and Free Shipping to be important or very important.

Prosper Insights research indicates that Store Loyalty Cards at 27 percent  and Online Coupons at 19 percent have the highest Promotional Influence. SmartPhones, are used by majority of users 54 percent for looking for a store or store hours, followed by browsing or looking for a service or product. Nearly 37 percent users undertake Comparison Shopping and Price Apps and checking customer reviews  with the smartphones. Of those that used the phone for comparison shopping, Amazon Price Check was the most used app.

Note : NRF tallies total retail industry sales from November and December — 61 days — to determine holiday sales. Holidays during this period include Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. This year there are 29 days from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve, which includes four weekends. Christmas falls on a Friday this year, meaning the weekend after Christmas will likely be one of the busiest of the year.