The holiday season is almost here, and knowing how each generation plans to shop can give your holiday advertising campaigns the edge you need. Our recent survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers reveals 2024 holiday shopping trends for each generation and key insights into their anticipated spending levels, preferred shopping categories, and how they look for gift ideas.
In this blog post, we’ll explore three 2024 holiday shopping trends across generations:
- Projected consumer spending
- Top categories on shoppers’ lists
- Preferred channels for researching gifts
1. Projected consumer spending
Over 1 in 3 Gen Z and Millennials are gearing up to increase their holiday budgets this year, while Gen X and Boomers are likelier to stick to last year’s budget.
- 36% of Millennials and Gen Z plan to spend more this holiday season
- 45% of Gen X and 52% of Boomers expect their spending to remain consistent with last year
What this means for marketers
These insights highlight the importance of tailoring your messaging. For Gen Z and Millennials, emphasize value and unique offerings that justify increased spending. For Gen X and Boomers, focus on trust and reliability, reinforcing their confidence in your brand.
How Experian can help you target these audiences
Experian’s custom and syndicated audience segments, including Holiday Shopper High Spenders and Holiday Shopper Moderate Spenders, enable you to connect with these diverse consumer groups. Our audiences are available on-the-shelf of leading ad platforms to help you reach people across social, TV, and mobile.
The election effect
U.S. holiday retail sales saw 4.1% YoY growth in 2016 and 8.3% YoY growth in 2020 following presidential elections. There’s a chance that holiday spending increases after the 2024 election, regardless of the outcome. Experian has 240+ politically relevant audiences that you can activate across major ad platforms ahead of the upcoming election.
2. Top categories on shoppers’ lists
Different generations have distinct preferences when it comes to what they plan to buy. Gift cards top the list for Gen X and Boomers, while Gen Z leans toward clothing. Millennials are looking to splurge on toys, electronics, and experiences.
- 69% of Boomers and Gen X plan to purchase gift cards
- 72% of Gen Z will buy clothing
- 45% of Millennials will buy health and beauty items
- 25% of Millennials will buy tickets and 22% of Millennials will buy experiences
What this means for marketers
Align your product offerings and promotions with each generation’s preferences to capture their attention. For example, highlighting versatile gift cards may resonate more with older generations, while showcasing trendy apparel and tech gadgets will appeal to younger consumers.
How Experian can help you target these shoppers
We offer audience segments like Holiday Shoppers: Apparel, Cosmetics & Beauty Spenders, and Toys Shoppers that you can activate to connect with consumers primed to purchase in these categories.
We recently released 19 new holiday shopping audiences we recommend targeting to drive engagement and conversions. Download our audience recommendations here.
3. Preferred channels for researching gift ideas
When it comes to finding the perfect gifts, Gen Z turns to social media, while Millennials prefer online reviews and video content. Boomers and Gen X are more inclined to visit physical stores for hands-on product evaluations.
- 29% of Gen Z and 26% of Millennials will look for gift ideas on social media
- 44% of Millennials will rely on video reviews and product demos on platforms like YouTube
- 49% of Gen X and Boomers plan to visit physical stores to evaluate products in person
What this means for marketers
Understanding where each generation looks for inspiration can guide your content and ad placement strategy. To engage Gen Z, focus on social media campaigns and influencer partnerships. For Millennials, consider investing in video content and reviews. For older generations, ensure your in-store experience is optimized to convert browsing into purchases.
How Experian can help you engage these shoppers
Our TrueTouchTM audiences can help you pair the perfect messaging styles with the right channels and calls to action. Our Social media channel and content engagement audiences can help you reach Gen Z who are likely to be active users on major social platforms and are Black Friday shoppers. For a full list of Experian’s syndicated audiences and activation destinations, download our syndicated audiences guide.
Download our report for five 2024 holiday shopping trends by generation
Understanding 2024 holiday shopping trends by generation can help you tailor your targeting, messaging, media planning, and creative based on the generation you’re targeting.
In addition to the insights covered here, download our 2024 Holiday spending trends and insights report to learn:
- When consumers plan to shop (hint: they’re already shopping)
- Where they plan to shop (online vs. in-store)
Download our full report to access all five of our predictions by generation, so you can address the diverse needs of this year’s holiday shoppers.
When you work with Experian for your holiday shopping campaigns, you’re getting:
- Accurate consumer insights: Better understand your customers’ behavioral and demographic attributes with our #1 ranked data covering the full U.S. population.
- Signal-agnostic identity solutions: Our deep understanding of people in the offline and digital worlds provides you with a persistent linkage of personally identifiable information (PII) data and digital IDs, ensuring you accurate cross-device targeting, addressability and measurement.
- Secure connectivity: Bring data and identity to life in a way that meets your needs by securely sharing data between partners, utilizing the integrations we have across the ecosystem, and using our marketing data in flexible ways.
Make the most of this holiday shopping season with Experian. Contact us today to get started.
Source
Online survey conducted in June, 2024 among n=1,000 U.S. adults 18+. Sample balanced to look like the general population on key demographics (age, gender, household income, ethnicity, and region).
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The home stretch for the holidays is nearing as second wind for retailers is just starting as Experian Marketing Services analyzes the post-Christmas retail trend. Christmas Day 2012 saw a 27% increase in online traffic to the top 500 retail sites compared to 2011. The top retail sites received more than 115.5 million total U.S. visits. To date the holiday online traffic for the past 7 weeks to retail sites are up 10% for 2012 vs. 2011. Each retail holiday milestone day saw online traffic increases so far this season. Amazon remained the top visited site among retailers for this past week ending Dec. 22, 2012 and was also the top visited site on Christmas Day. Walmart, Target, BestBuy and Macy’s round out the top 5 most visited sites. The chart below includes the top 10 results: As tablets dominated our weekly top product search lists all holiday season it wasn’t surprising to see that the Apple iTunes site visits increased 193% and Apple.com visits increased 155% on Christmas Day 2012 vs. Christmas Eve 2012. The top product search terms sending traffic to the Apple.com site were iPod Nano, iPad Mini and iPad 4. Amazon.com visits increased 24% on Christmas Day 2012 vs. Christmas Eve 2012 as the top product search terms sending traffic to their site were Amazon Kindle, Kindle Fire and Kindle Also seeing growth were gift card searches as the year-over-year total search volume for "gift card" variations increased 6.1% this year compared to 2011. The big spike in searches happened last week (as online shoppers passed shipping deadlines). Below are the top 10 gift card searches for last week. We will continue to publish retail site data and insights through this holiday season. Please leave us a comment below if you have any specific questions along the way. UPDATE: The top 500 retail sites received more than 129 million total US visits on Dec. 26th, an increase of 1% compared to 2011 and 12% compared to Christmas Day 2012. Amazon was the top site followed by Walmart, Target, BestBuy and Macy’s. JCPenney, QVC and The Home Depot all moved into the top 10 on the day after Christmas. Learn more about the author, Matt Tatham
Hi, Dana here with an update on my holiday shopping post from before Thanksgiving. Like I thought, I was able to get most of my shopping done that Black Friday weekend. It was all pretty fast and easy, but I did have one not so great experience too. My sister knew I was going to get something for my niece, so when she got an email from Toy World that everything would be 50% off on Black Friday she forwarded it to me to let me know. I was thrilled. I had done some searching for good toys this year and had some ideas. While I normally would shop online, the Toy World coupon said the 50% off was in-store only so I braved the crowds for a good deal. Unfortunately, when I got there I learned that the email was wrong – only select items were 50% off and others were buy one, get one 50% off. I was pretty upset because the hottest toys were the ones excluded from the deal. I came all that way based on the email. I wound up getting a gift, but I could have saved myself the hassle and long lines, especially since I didn’t get a deal that was different from any other day. That was a rough start to the shopping weekend, but, no worries, things improved. I have to tell you about my best shopping experience – I’ve been telling everyone! This year I used Pinterest to see what my mom has had her eye on lately. One of her pins is a food processor and I think that’s a perfect gift for her. I’m a card holder and reward member at Aaron’s department store and I know they carry some really nice kitchen appliances. They also happened to send me great Cyber Monday coupons in the mail – it was perfect timing. I went online on Cyber Monday, used the promo codes from the coupons and not only got great deals, but got free shipping too! How easy was that?! They also sent me shipping notifications so I knew exactly when to expect the package. I am really happy that I got something great for everyone on my list and now have time to enjoy the rest of 2012. I hope you enjoy it too! XOXO, Dana Editor’s note: You can tell that Aaron’s knows Dana. They used their direct mail piece to send her online offers because they know that’s her preferred purchase method. They’ve won her over once again and created a brand advocate. Learn where your company stands in your marketing efforts today, and how you can help move efforts forward to ensure your customers have good experiences like Dana had with Aaron’s, and avoid bad ones like her trip to Toy World.
With the busy holiday marketing season in full swing, Experian Marketing Services has released its online retail round-up for the week ending December 8. The online traffic to the top 500 retail sites increased 5% for the period of December 2 – 8, compared to the same week in 2011. Additionally, Amazon remained the top visited site among retailers, followed by Walmart and Target. The chart below includes the top 10 results: Experian Marketing Services also tracks top product searches. Listed below are the top 5 product searches for the week ending December 8: Uggs iPad mini iPad Beats by dre Ipod touch We will continue to publish weekly retail site data and insights through this holiday season. Please leave us a comment below if you have any specific questions along the way. Learn more about the author, Matt Tatham