Financial concerns threaten the 2023 holiday shopping season

The economy has finally replaced COVID as the main source of anxiety for consumers as brands prepare for the holiday shopping season.

In fact, financial concerns have surged more than 150% YoY, while concerns about COVID have declined from 52% to 16%. These financial concerns might actually be more pressing than fear of the virus, with those expecting to have a normal holiday shopping season dropping from 60% in 2022 to 49% this year.

The data come from “The Annual Holiday Shopper Survey for Marketers,” a survey of over 900 U.S. consumers polled by the Emodo Institute, the research arm of audience, inventory and creative solutions platform Emodo.

Dig deeper: No matter the time of year, there’s a holiday you should be planning a campaign for

More findings. In addition to the headline findings, the survey also reported that:

• While more than 60% of women expect the perceived recession to have an impact on their families, fewer than 40% of men share that concern.
• Hispanic consumers are the most concerned about a financial impact.
• Consumers say they’re likely to stop shopping later in the season.

The full findings are available here.

Why we care. This might not be a huge sample, although Emodo says it’s representative, but these results constitute an early warning that this year’s holiday shopping days might not equal the resounding successes of 2020 and 2021.

Although financial hardship was certainly experienced by many during the long months of lockdown and remote working, it’s also true that many saved money and had disposable cash when the holidays came around. This year, people may be feeling somewhat safer; but they may also be feeling broke.