Pedestrians walk through the festively decorated luxury shopping arcade Burlington Arcade on Monday, December 4, 2023 in London, England. UK store inflation has fallen to a 17-month low as retailers struggle to attract shoppers ahead of the crucial holiday period.Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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“Girl math” is timely revived this holiday season and attracts attention New seasonal consumption habits that consumers are adopting this year.
TikTok users say that if you buy gifts months before Christmas, they will be “free” by December. If you splurge during Cyber Week, you’re technically saving more for Christmas Day.
welcome to Mathematics for Girls – but with a holiday twist.
Mathematics for Girls is a TikTok trend about personal finance.it reveals how women Shoppers rationalize their spending habits, often involving mental exercises to justify purchases in a way that maximizes happiness.
The resurgence of girls’ math this holiday season may be a sign that consumers are starting to feel the strain on their wallets, but they can’t stop shopping.
Start your 2023 holiday shopping
meanwhile Inflation is stable, prices remain high, and consumers are still spending.
More than half of holiday shoppers say they feel financially strained this holiday season, according to a survey. Research by Bankrate.
But while consumers remain cautious, “shoppers feel like they want to celebrate the holiday season the right way,” Retail Cities managing director Brian Gildenberg told CNBC’s “Squawk” in late November.・Box Asia”.
Analysts note that shoppers may be doing their girl math for the gifting season to streamline shopping amid rising costs.
“The extended holiday season may be an example of girl math, as shoppers may view discounts as ‘saving money.’ For example, giving them a 40% discount on a $100 item is a $40 savings for them,” Melissa Lee, a financial consultant at Great Eastern, told CNBC.
She added that girls’ math is a way for shoppers to create a “mental label for their money” and justify their spending habits.
in fact, holiday shopping It is expected to begin no later than 2022 and end later this year, according to McKinsey & Company.
The 2023 U.S. holiday season will begin “increasingly long” before Halloween, with 50% of holiday shopping starting in October or earlier, followed by 40% in November, according to a McKinsey report. The survey also found that consumers are willing to buy over several months rather than all at once, and are starting to browse early in anticipation of price increases.
This pushed pre-holiday online spending in October to a record $76.8 billion. This is about $4.3 billion more than he had a year ago. report Indicated by Adobe Analytics.
Holiday spending also spikes in November and December and is expected to reach up to $966.6 billion in 2023, according to one study. forecast By the National Retail Federation. Core retail sales (excluding restaurants, autos, and gasoline) in November were up 0.73% from the previous month and 4.17% from the same month last year. This was revealed by CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor.
However, most consumers feel there is still a lot of shopping to do.
According to a Morgan Stanley survey, 61% of consumers expect to get better deals than on Black Friday or Cyber Monday in late November and will continue shopping from December 1st until Christmas Day.
Who will spend more money?
After overspending in the summer, shoppers seem to be holding back this winter.
Women turned out in “record” numbers to movies and live concerts in the summer, boosting the economy. This trend will likely continue into winter. Report by PwC I predicted it. The report shows they are expected to spend 11% more this year compared to 2022 and are more likely to spend on gifts compared to men.
However, increased spending by women may not reflect frivolous spending. Rather, it reveals women’s strategic approach to determining the best value for money.
In keeping with the “rules” of girls’ math, women seem to care less about list price and more about the value of their purchases, free returns, shipping and convenience, the PwC report found.
Additionally, young parents emerged as a prominent consumer segment this holiday season.
“Young people are in their prime spending years, and especially if they have young children, they will be a large group of holiday shoppers,” Ted Rothman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate, told CNBC. .
Rothman noted that families with young children are likely to participate in discounts this holiday season. Report by Bankrate According to the survey, 49% of parents with children under 18 participated in October sales, compared to 28% of holiday shoppers without children.
On the other hand, vacationing with family can be expensive.
a Research with Rocket Money According to a study by the personal finance app, people who stay with family this holiday season are expected to spend 53% more.
More than half of people celebrating the holidays with their families believe overspending will be a “moderate to severe problem” in 2022, a study has found.
Alternative payment methods
Credit cards remain the go-to financing method for shoppers this holiday season.a Survey by Forbes Advisor We found that 52.3% of Americans plan to use credit cards and go into debt to pay for gift purchases.
Additionally, 42% of respondents indicated they plan to increase their balance by at least $501, and 11% of them expect to charge more than $1,000 on their credit card this holiday, the survey found.
There is also a growing trend towards more flexible payment options.
In particular, “buy now, pay later” installment plans are gaining popularity among consumers.
This year, BNPL hit an all-time high of $940 million in online purchases on Cyber Monday, an increase of 42.5% year over year. report Revealed by Adobe Analytics. According to the report, the number of items per order also increased by 11% year over year as consumers increasingly used his BNPL for larger carts.
Flexible payment options like BNPL are becoming popular among shoppers who “don’t feel like they need to spend money right away at the moment,” and debts can be repaid at a pace over several months, Lee said. added.
From November 1st to 27th, BNPL raised $8.3 billion, making November potentially the payment method’s biggest month in history, according to a report from Adobe Analytics.
—CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.