Have you started your holiday shopping yet? A new survey reveals many Americans aren’t waiting until they finish their Thanksgiving turkey to start theirs, with 64% shopping before Black Friday or Cyber Monday. That’s up 11% from last year.
GetYourGuide, a travel booking site, asked a thousand U.S. adults about their gift buying practices and preferences for presents and found:
- Parents are more likely to get their holiday shopping done early than those without kids, 69% compared to 59%.
- Only 24% wait until the last weekend in November to tackle their holiday shopping lists, but that number goes up to 32% for Gen Z, while 12% plan to wait until December to start.
- Price is still the top concern for 56% of Americans, down from 63% last year. Other holiday gift buying concerns include shipping delays (37%), out-of-stock items (32%) and return policies (24%).
- But none of those matter if you get what the majority of people want this year, as 92% would prefer an experience to share with a loved one over a physical gift.
- The top experiences Americans are hoping to get include travel or a trip (51%), a concert or show (40%), outdoor activity like skiing or hiking (30%) and a museum visit (27%).
- Most respondents agree that uniqueness makes the best gifted experience (79%), followed by exclusivity (70%).
- People say the best holiday gift they’ve received is an experience (25%), jewelry (24%) and clothing (17%).
- As for where they’d like to travel, 45% of Americans have chosen a destination after hearing about an event like a concert or game happening there, 36% have wanted to go to a location after seeing it in a show or movie and 31% picked a site because a show or movie was filmed there. GetYourGuide saw a 230% increase in bookings to Sicily after the second season of HBO’s “White Lotus,” which took place on the Italian island.
Source: Yahoo Finance