Holiday Shopping and Younger Multicultural Consumers

Inflation is a pressing concern for most Americans today. This summer, Collage Group launched an urgent initiative into consumer attitudes and behaviors related to the present economic situation. More recently, we followed up to better understand how rising prices may be affecting younger Multicultural Americans’ shopping preferences during the holiday season.

Key Insight #1

Overall we found that despite the backdrop of financial challenges, most younger Americans will be spending the same or more this holiday season. This is particularly true of Black Americans’ who are also the least likely to have made changes to their shopping behaviors due to rising prices across a variety of categories.

Key Insight #2

For those younger Americans who do plan to spend more this holiday season, the main reason is that they have more money to spend. Asian and White Americans are more likely to have more people to shop for on their gift buying lists.

Key Insight #3

For those Younger Americans who are spending less this holiday season, it’s not surprising that having less money to spend tops the list of reasons why they are spending less followed closely by the higher costs of gifts this year. Hispanic and Asian Americans are more likely to be saving for a bigger purchase than other segments.

So what can your brand do to support shoppers this holiday season?

1. Offer value driven strategies that can help Americans spend “smart”. Expedited shipping for free or at a low cost and price-match guarantees are two examples of helping consumers who are feeling the effects of inflation but still want to shop during the holidays.
2. Convert new customers who seek out your brand for the first time to brand loyalists through a strong customer relationship management strategy.
3. Offer sales and discounts throughout the month of December to appeal to the many shoppers who take advantage of the whole month (and the steep discounts right after) to buy their gifts.