Consumers Chase Convenience This Holiday Shopping Season

Cautious optimism and digitally-enabled convenience are the key consumer definers of the holiday shopping season, according to PwC’s 2019 holiday outlook, released today. Despite uncertainty and looming economic concerns on the geopolitical front, 86 percent of consumers told PwC they expect to spend as much or more this holiday season as they did last year (an average of $1,284). However, the outlook comes with a caveat. “High-profile job losses or even a small uptick in the unemployment rate might be enough to cause consumers to pull back on spending,” said PwC. The silver lining, however, is that an uncertain outlook goes both ways. “A reduction in tariff rates, particularly those aimed at consumer goods could be enough to support consumer spending and avoid recession for a while longer,” authors of the report noted. Similar to findings in other reports published by WWD, this research finds some shoppers have already begun spending for holiday. And a small percentage began shopping for holiday items in July. Prime Day – described as a digital convenience event – was a factor with 2 percent of respondents stating they had already completed gift purchases by the middle of July. But digitally enabled convenience means different things to different people. “Ultimately,

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