The holiday shopping season is in full swing and holiday shoppers in the US are feeling spend-happy entering the 2018 holiday-shopping season. It expected that shoppers will spend billions on gifts, groceries, garland, and greeting cards galore so it’s a make-or-break moment for retailers. Field Agent’s 2018 holiday insights report provides retailers, brands, and agencies a crucial data at Americans’ 2018 holiday-shopping plans and expectations. Let’s take a sneak peek at the top line findings:

Holiday Spending in the US by Category

• First of all, 40% of shoppers in the US claimed that they would begin their 2018 gift-shopping on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or even earlier in November.
• Walmart (85%) and Amazon (82%) art the top two retailers that American shopper plan to purchase their holiday gifts from, followed far by Target with only 39%.
• The vast majority of parents surveyed indicated that their daughters and sons are more likely to receive clothes/footwear/wearable accessories as gifts for this Christmas. These are followed by arts/crafts/creative for daughters and video gaming for sons.
• 73% of girls ages 2-9 are much more likely to receive dolls or doll accessories, compared to only 19% of girls ages 14-17.
• Husbands are more likely to purchase jewelry/watch for their wives, while wives are more likely to purchase clothing/footwear for their husbands a holiday present in 2018.
• Gift cards are a coveted holiday present for more than 61% of holiday shoppers in the US. Gift cards or cash are also the top general wish among adult men and women.
• Again, Walmart is the top retail website that American shoppers are likely to purchase Christmas greeting cards from (39%), followed by Dollar Tree (23%) and Target.

A Graph Shows the Proportions of Willingness to Purchase Gift Cards for Others in the 2018 Holiday Season

Online Holiday Shopping in the US in 2018

• 53% of holiday shoppers in the US indicated that they’re completely likely to buy gifts online/ in-app this holiday season, while 26% are very likely to do so.
• 65% of online shoppers in the US plan to spend most of their digital dollars with Amazon, while only 19% indicated to do so with Walmart.
• Electronics gifts (48%), entertainment (44%) and clothing/footwear (44%) are the top three categories that shoppers in the US would purchase online for the 2018 shopping season.
• Walmart and Amazon are the top retailer-specific mobile apps expected to be used with rates of 70% and 58%, respectively.

A Graph Shows the Proportions of Willingness to Buy Gifts Online and/or in-app in the 2018 Holiday Season

Methodology:

Data in this report is based on five different mobile surveys with five different sample sizes. The total of respondents reached 13,207 US adults aged 18-64 years old. 49% of them are males and 51% are females. Surveys were conducted September 9-17, 2018.