Consumers Plan To Spend More This Holiday Season

The early birds get all the worms or, in this case, less stress since lots of consumers have already started holiday shopping by the end of September.

That’s according to the American Express Spending & Savings Tracker, which found 33 percent of consumers indicated they already started shopping at the end of September, up from 25 percent last year.

As for how much consumers in the U.S. plan to spend on holiday gifts, American Express found it’s an average of $908, up 8 percent from last year. Among the affluent, the amount goes up to $1,513. That should be welcome news for retailers who get a lot of their sales during the holiday season.

According to American Express, the most popular gifts this holiday season include gift cards, clothing/accessories and toys/games. “While consumers are spending more money on gifts this year, they are becoming savvier with how they spend their time shopping,” said Kartik Mani, EVP of global consumer lending at American Express, in the press release. “With our constant connection to technology, more Americans than ever before are using their mobile devices to help them make holiday purchases.”

The survey also found that three in four Americans, or 76 percent, are using their mobile devices for holiday shopping — be it browsing to compare prices or to check out online deals. There’s also been an uptick in Americans planning to purchase and/or redeem eGift cards on mobile devices, with 62 percent saying they would compared to 26 percent in 2015. The report also found that, while mobile is playing a big role in holiday shopping in 2016, most consumers will resort to the internet to research, compare prices, look for hard-to-find gifts or make purchases.