According to the National Retail Federation survey, among 7,276 consumers, conducted for NRF by Prosper Insights & Analytics from  October 5 to October 13, 2015, nearly 45 percent of consumers will buy and browse online up from 44.4 percent last year. Nearly 21.4 percent of Smartphone shoppers will use their phones to purchase merchandise online this year.
Average spending per person is likely to reach USD 805.65, comparable with spending of USD 802 in 2014 holiday season. Spending on gifts for family members will total USD 462.95, up from USD 458.75 last year.

Almost half of holiday shopping, consisting of browsing and buying, will be done online: average consumers say 46 percent of their shopping (both browsing and buying) this holiday season will be conducted online, up from 44 percent last year.

21.4 percent of smartphone owners will use their device to purchase holiday merchandise this year.

Nearly half at 47 percent state that free shipping/shipping promotions are important factors in their decision on where to shop.

55.8 percent of holiday shoppers will splurge on themselves and/or others for non-gift items, and will spend an average of US 131.59, up from USD 126.37 last year.

Some of the key trends that are prevalent among the Holiday season shoppers are:​

Buy online pick up in store, free shipping high on busy shoppers’ lists

Buying Online and pick-up in stores remains the prevalent option for Holiday shoppers who expect same day delivery. Among the point of purchase options, Discount (55.9 percent) and Department Stores (55.6 percent), and online (52.9 percent), were the places of choice for Holiday season shoppers. Two in five (44.1 percent) will shop at grocery stores and one-third (33.4 percent) at Clothing and apparel stores. Same day Delivery option ranks highly with younger audiences for all categories, compared to 7 percent of the remaining popilation exprcting same day delivery.

High level of Mobile Engagement

A higher percentage of audience nearly 38 percent are likely to use  Smartphones to research products with nearly a third using smartphones for looking up retailer information like store hours and directions. Nearly one-fifths will use Smartphones to look up product availability in a store.

Self-gifting Up

The phenomenon self-gifting is bigger than earlier with users choosing to gift themselves over others. Nearly 60 percent of consumers plan to splurge on themselves.

Early-bird Shoppers Exist

As high as 48 percent consumers said they want to avoid last minute crowd and prefer to shop early and nearly 60 percent consumers start shopping early as they want to spread out their budgets.

In another study from BrandShop, more than 50 percent of customers, prefer to buy apparel and electronics directly from the brand. A vast majority of audiences like to complete the purchase at the same time. Amazon remains the preferred site to shop from with an overwhelming nearly 70 percent of the shoppers followed by online retailers (nearly 47 percent).

Some of the most popular gift items that are popular for holiday season shopping are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sales and discounts, quality of merchandise tops for holiday shoppers

 

 

Three-quarters (73.1 percent) ranked price discounts as the most important factor, followed by Quality of merchandise ranked as the most important factor by 60 percent of audiences. 58.6 percent decided on the basis of selection of merchandise and two in five nearly 45 percent said a convenient location helped them decide.

And when it comes to online shopping, 46.7 percent said free shipping/shipping promotions are important factors in their decision on where to shop.  Nearly 30 percent stated that easy-to-use websites or mobile sites were important to them.

For younger audiences knowledgeable staff and layaway services are important in their destination decision.