Retailers have been slashing prices like crazy to try and attract buyers for the holiday season, however, a recent survey concludes that shoppers are waiting until after Thanksgiving to buy gifts.
"I spotted the first holiday set-up in a store on August 18th this year - that's nearly a month earlier than last year," wrote NPD's chief retail analysts Marshal Cohen. "Retailers are looking to start the season earlier but consumers just aren't ready."
Walmart supposedly cut prices on holiday toys by fifty percent and plans to continue to reduce prices weekly until the holidays roll around.
Yet, forty percent of consumers, ten percent more than last year, say they plan on waiting until Thanksgiving to buy their gifts for loved ones.
The holidays are cruical for the retail industry since the sales accumulated in this amount of time account for more than fifty percent of their profits and sales.
Marshal Cohen says much of the reasoning behind the lack of buying has to do with boring merchadise. There is not a must-have-item currently on the market.
The survey also tried to determine whether consumers would be spending the same amount in previous years. Only five percent of consumers said they would be spending less. NPD agrees that shoppers have the same amount of people on their gift list as they did last year and consquently have the same budget as they did in previous years.
However, impulse buys seem to be on the downward trend. Retailers are hoping for as much as seventeen percent compared to twenty-six percent in years before 2006.
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