London, December 10, 2020 – Capgemini today announces the result of its holiday trends research, which shows that UK consumers are displaying caution in their spending this holiday season. The study has found that 76% of UK consumers have done less holiday shopping than usual – a disappointment to retailers, as 45% had expected an increase in sales. However, many admitted they were less confident in their ability to accurately predict sales patterns this holiday season compared to last year (39% compared to 55% in 2019).
Today’s findings show the drop in spending is mainly due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions (31%) preventing consumers from shopping in store, coupled with a decrease in disposable income (21%), as well as people giving fewer gifts because they’re seeing fewer family members (20%). These factors are also impacting what consumers are buying: 48% of holiday season purchases are for essential items, with consumers prioritising clothing (33%), beauty/personal care products (27%) and electrical items (17%).
With prudence top of mind for consumers, almost a third (28%) cite discounts as the most influential factor when making a purchase, and that the importance of price cannot be underestimated. While more than a third (31%) are focused on buying only the things they need, 28% indicated they have been persuaded by a discount to buy something they hadn’t planned to purchase, 15% have yet to buy something in the hope of a better deal soon, and 57% say they have made the most of free shipping options this year.
While spending might be down, consumers are embracing new shopping formats. 50% have shopped more online this festive season than ever before, while almost a quarter (23%) say they have purchased more locally produced goods than in previous years. And the online shopping trend is set to continue. While more than a quarter of consumers surveyed (28%) had never shopped online before the pandemic, 50% are now more comfortable with this format and 50% say they will shop online more in future.
The outlook for in-store shopping is also positive. While the preference for in-store shopping on Black Friday dropped from 39% last year to 28% this year according to Capgemini’s first holiday season survey, findings from the second study, which focuses solely on consumer attitudes, suggest shoppers are missing the in-store experience. 62% of consumers would like to return to their previous shopping habits once the pandemic is over, with 64% stating that they miss shopping in-store. But consumers don’t want the innovations that retailers introduced during the pandemic to be forgotten. New technologies which were brought in to mitigate the risk of COVID-19, such as contactless payments and self-service kiosks, encouraged 42% of shoppers to venture in-store. Now, almost three in five (59%) want these technologies to remain in the future.
