The busiest season for consumer spending is just around the corner, and a slew of estimates are likely to be thrown around regarding how the holiday shopping season will pan out.
The season starts with Black Friday weekend, which is the four-day period between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday. Shopping trends during the period are considered an indicator of how the rest of the season will shape up.
Let’s Go Shopping
The most sought-after items this Black Friday are likely to be tech devices, according to the Consumer Technology Association, or CTA’s, 2019 Pre-Black Friday Week Survey.
The survey was carried out between Oct. 24 and Oct. 27 using an online representative sample of 2,008 U.S. adults ages 18 and up.
About half of the U.S. shoppers intend to shop during Black Friday week, and of these shoppers, about 82% expressed intentions to buy tech devices and accessories, the survey said.
Hot Tech Items
- Wireless earbuds/headphones: 57%
- Mobile device case: 46%
- Video game discs: 42%
- Portable battery chargers: 42%
- Streaming download services such as Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX) and Spotify Technology SA (NYSE: SPOT): 41%
- Smartphones: 41%
The recent buoyancy in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock is not without reason.
Most sell-side firms have been positive on the uptake of the latest iPhone iterations and have hiked their iPhone shipment estimates for the quarter. Apple could also rake in huge accessories sales.
“Content subscriptions and services are quickly becoming a go-to gift, especially as a wide range of streaming video, audio and gaming options come on the market this holiday season,” Lesley Rohrbaugh, director of market research at the CTA, said in a statement.
E-Commerce Growing
Although a combination of shopping channels is likely to be tapped, most consumers buying tech devices are likely shop online, on mobile devices and via voice. The percentage of U.S. adult shoppers using desktop or laptop for shopping has increased 2 points from last year to 83%, the CTA said.
About 81% plan to shop using a mobile device — up five points — and those opting for voice-based shopping using digital assistants such as Apple’s Siri and Amazon.com, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) Alexa jumped nine points to 48%.
Almost all shoppers expressed an intention to go in person to brick-and-mortar stores, especially to shop at mass merchants such as Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) and Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT).
“We are going to see retailers start sales earlier in November and more online shoppers this season to make up for less time between Black Friday Week and the month of December,” Rohrbaugh said.
At last check, the SPDR S&P Retail (NYSE: XRT) was adding 0.11% to $44.75.
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Photo courtesy of Apple.
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