Note: This is the first of three Holiday Season Shopping Reports in today’s D2B issue.
Nobody is really sure how this holiday shopping season is going to turn out with tariffs, government uncertainty and the overall economy putting consumers in a potentially foul mood. But whatever happens, demographics are likely to once again drive purchasing patterns.
Overall, we’re likely to see “a broader, cautious approach to spending as economic pressures continue to shape consumer behavior,” with the country “settling in for a tepid holiday season,” according to a new study from McKinsey, the big consulting and data company. It expects to see more necessity-driven buying out there for items like household products and pet and baby items as opposed to discretionary purchases for things like apparel and personal care.
Its research found that 23 percent of its survey group plan to spend less compared to those who plan to spend more, 19 percent, over the holiday season.
The more positive shoppers are the millennials, McKinsey said, with that age group also expected to be among the earlier shoppers on the seasonal calendar.
Contrasting with them is Gen Z -- Zoomers seems to be the increasingly popular way to describe this demographic -- who are the most negative given their financial standing. They will also be later shoppers, not doing their serious buying until much closer to Christmas itself. McKinsey found that the other two demographic groups on the purchasing matrix -- Boomers and Gen X -- seem to fall somewhere in between.
Curiously, it will be the Zoomers who will prioritize putting more meaning into their holiday celebrations as they seem to be more impacted by the shape of the country and how that is influencing their lifestyles than are other generations. Another study from McKinsey, on mental health, found they have the least positive life outlook, with “lower levels of emotional and social well-being and higher rates of anxiety, depression and distress than any other generation.”
Predicting shopping patterns is always an inexact science but this year, the differences in demographic spending are likely to be more noticeable than ever.