This holiday season? Consumers want to have fun, and they’re willing to spend big to have it. But before retailers get too excited? Consumers are also planning to spend less on gifts this season.
That’s the takeaway from JLL‘s 2023 Holiday Shopping Report.
According to the report, holiday shoppers plan to spend $958 a person this holiday season, with 22.8% of this money used for entertainment and experiences. More than 90% of the respondents to JLL’s holiday survey said that they planned to participate in at least one holiday-related experience.
And what experiences are shoppers planning to indulge in this holiday season? JLL says that 65.5% of survey respondents said that they would dine out at a restaurant and 43.7% will go to the movies. An additional 27.5% said that they will attend a live performance while 23.5% said that they will travel on vacation and stay at a hotel.
On average, shoppers said that they would spend $218 on entertainmnt and holiday-related experiences this season.
To get these results, JLL surveyed 1,095 consumers online in August.
While consumers do plan to spend on experiences, they also plan on spending less on holiday goods, such as gifts. JLL reported that consumers plan to spend an average of $748 on holiday goods this holiday season. That is down from an average of $868 less year.
This year, survey respondents said that they plan to spend an average of $530 on gifts, $210 on other holiday goods such as food and decorations and $218 on entertainment and holiday-related experiences.
Last year? Survey respondents told JLL that they planned to spend an average of $612 on gifts and $255 on other holiday goods. JLL did not ask consumers about how much they planned to spend on experiences last year.
Not surprisingly, consumers with higher incomes said that they planned to spend more on the holidays this year. Consumers earning less than $50,000 said that they plan to spend roughly 40% less than the average of $958. Wealthy consumers, those earning more than $150,000, plan to spend 85.8% more than the average person. High-end consumers said that they will splurge on experiences this year, averaging $460 a person, more than twice the overall mean of all consumers.
JLL found that women are budgeting more on gifts — 42.1% more — than are their male counterparts. Men, though, plan to outspend women on other holiday merchandise such as food and décor and on experiences.