YOUR SHOPPING STYLE MAY BE A GENERATION THING
As Black Friday nears, study reveals plenty of differences
Most Americans will shop for holiday gifts this season, but how they do so and their attitudes about the experience vary by generation, according to a new study.
Personal finance website NerdWallet analyzed behavior and trends among Millennials (ages 18 to 34), Gen Xers (35 to 54) and Baby Boomers (55-plus) in its 2016 Consumer Holiday Shopping Report and found the generations often have different budgeting, saving and spending habits.
No matter which age group you belong to, you can avoid making shopping mistakes by keeping a few best practices in mind. After all, as NerdWallet retail expert Courtney Jespersen says, “the burden of savvy shopping lies with the consumer.”
HOW EACH GENERATION SHOPS FOR THE HOLIDAYS Not all Americans approach holiday shopping the same way. Some are more prone to making spur-of-the-moment purchases, others are better at keeping to budgets.
For example, 49% of Millennials consider themselves impulse shoppers, a higher proportion than Gen Xers (41%) and Baby Boomers (25%), the study found.
This may explain why Millennials were the least likely to stick to their 2015 holiday budgets (36%) compared with Gen Xers (42%) and Baby Boomers (50%).
However, Gen Xers plan to spend the most this season ($723) compared with the other two groups and are almost twice as likely to still be carrying debt from their 2015 holiday shopping (9% vs. 5% for both Millennials and Boomers).
There are differences among the generations when it comes to choosing payment methods.
Baby Boomers are the most likely to use a major or retail credit card (55%), and Millennials are the most likely to use cash (60%), which may be why the majority of these young shoppers (62%) didn’t incur any credit card debt from the 2015 holiday season.
CONFUSION AND CONTRADICTIONS Americans are bombarded with advertisements throughout the holiday season. This information overload might be causing confusion around the quality and timing of bargains.
As the study revealed, most consumers (77%) think they save money by shopping on Thanksgiving, Black Friday or Cyber Monday, but they don’t seem to know if they’re maximizing their savings: 65% aren’t sure whether they’re getting the best deals during the holidays, and 64% think all sales held throughout the year are somewhat the same.
In other words, shoppers aren’t convinced holiday sales live up to the hype. This uncertainty might be partially to blame for the stress that 29% of them report feeling while doing their holiday shopping.
The study also found that only 6% shop solely from behind their screens during the holiday season.
NerdWallet is a USA TODAY content partner providing general news, commentary and coverage from around the web. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.