Holiday Tech Spending To Rise 2.3% From Last Year, CEA Survey Finds

More than six of 10 U.S. consumers plan to buy tech gifts this holiday season, and a third want to buy “emerging” tech products, such as smart home devices, wearable activity trackers or drones, CEA said in a Thursday report on its annual CE holiday purchase patterns study. CEA estimates overall spending this holiday season will increase 3.4 percent from a year ago to $788.5 billion, including $34.2 billion to be spent on tech products, a growth of 2.3 percent from 2014, it said. TVs, tablets, smartphones, laptops and videogame consoles top the “wish list” of tech items consumers want most to get as gifts, while headphones, tablets, portable Bluetooth speakers and laptops top the list of most popular gifts to give, it said. Consumers plan to shop later in the season than usual, “consistent with a belief that the best deals” can be had on Black Friday (Nov. 27 this year) or after, CEA said. Of consumers CEA canvassed, 71 percent said they “plan to wait until November or December to start their holiday shopping,” it said. That is 10 percentage points higher than the similar answer in the 2014 survey, it said. Women (31 percent) are much more likely than men (17 percent) to start their holiday shopping in October or earlier, CEA said. Fifty-five percent of consumers canvassed said they are likely to shop for tech online this year, CEA said. “However, traditional retail channels remain essential sources of tech gift purchases,” with 77 percent of consumers likely to buy from a brick-and-mortar location, CEA said, saying that proportion is roughly “on par” with survey findings in the past four years. Homes with children are significantly more likely to shop online (69 percent) than households without children (56 percent), CEA said