Christmas is Underway for Local Retailers

September 20 the National Retail Federation released its forecast for the upcoming 2007 holiday season -- predicting that sales would be weak for all but luxury items. Today begins the NRF series of releases going into more detail.

October 16 - Consumers to Take Conservative Approach to Holiday Shopping

• U.S. consumers plan to spend an average of $816.69 on holiday-related shopping.
• These shoppers will spend an additional $106.67 on special “non-gift” purchases by taking advantage of special promotions and discounts to treat themselves.
• This brings total planned holiday-related spending to $923.36, an increase of 3.7 percent from 2006.
• 40.3 percent of shoppers will begin holiday shopping before Halloween.
• Discounters can expect the most traffic as 68.4 percent of consumers plan to shop there (compared to 70.3% in 2006).
• Department Stores will also see a lion’s share of traffic as 58.2 percent will choose this format (vs. 61.6 percent last year).
• The Internet will once again play a crucial role for retailers this holiday season as consumers, on average, plan to do 30.2 percent of their shopping online compared to 28.9 percent in 2006.