How much does all that spending add up to?

The holidays are primarily about spending time with loved ones, enjoying family and making new memories. Sometimes, that takes travel, accommodations and dinner plans. While joy and love are the holiday gifts you can’t put a price on, other gifts come with a receipt. Here is how much Americans are spending on the holiday season:

The National Retail Federation (NRF) forecast that holiday spending is expected to reach record levels during November and December. The NRF estimates spending will grow to a figure somewhere between $957.3 billion and $966.6 billion.

Online and other non-store sales are expected to increase between 7% and 9% to a total of between $273.7 billion and $278.8 billion. That figure is up from $255.8 billion last year.

The NRF estimates retailers will hire between 345,000 and 450,000 seasonal workers for the 2023 holiday season.

According to PwC research:

• 72% of consumers expect deals before Black Friday.
• 40% of consumers are likely to switch brands if their items arrive late.
• 58% of Gen Z plan on traveling this holiday season vs. 47% of all consumers.
• Gen Z also has the largest percentage increase (15%) in expected spending in 2023 over last year compared to Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers.

According to Google Search Trends, the daily volume for shopping-related searches containing “deals” grew by over 2,300% last year during the week of Black Friday and Cyber Monday compared with searches in September.

And consumers put their money where their searches were — NRF found that a record 196.7 million consumers shopped over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend last year.

Sixty-nine percent of survey respondents said gifts were the top priority of their holiday shopping. The survey also showed consumers plan to spend $875 on core holiday items, including gifts, decorations, food and other holiday-related purchases this year.

No matter what your holiday spending looks like, we encourage you to budget responsibly. Don’t forget, you can use the budgeting tool in your Cadence Bank Online and Mobile Banking app to help keep your spending on track.

From all of us at Cadence Bank, we wish you and yours very happy holidays!

Sources: National Retail Federation, PwC

This article is provided as a free service to you and is for general informational purposes only. Cadence Bank makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the content in the article. The article is not intended to provide legal, accounting or tax advice and should not be relied upon for such purposes.