Global: Measuring expenditure during key seasonal shopping events
July 29th, 2022, Hoang Nguyen

Global: Measuring expenditure during key seasonal shopping events

A new YouGov study finds that 58% of all global consumers say they increased their expenditure for annual seasonal events over the last 12 months compared to their average monthly spend throughout the year.

The recently released report, The path to purchase for global seasonal events, looks at spending changes among more than 15,000 global consumers leading up to events such as Christmas, Mother’s and Father’s Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, summer holidays/vacations, Easter and Back-to-School across 18 global markets.

The report combines syndicated YouGov data from Profiles (an audience intelligence tool) and BrandIndex (a brand health tracker) with deep-dive custom research from Realtime Omnibus to help marketers understand consumer intent and provide insights into shopping trends and patterns.

How do consumers adjust their spending leading up to key seasonal shopping events?


In a separate analysis, we looked at the top seasonal shopping events around the world, with Christmas (57%), Mother’s/Father’s Day (26%), and Cyber Week (the Black Friday/Cyber Monday period; 25%) being the most popular events that consumers shop for annually.

The data reveals that more than half (58%) of all global shoppers who shop during seasonal events say they increased their expenditure at least slightly, including 17% who say they spend “significantly more” or “much more”.


Zooming into spending changes for specific seasonal events, we see that 69% of consumers who shop during the Back-to-School season say they increase spending for the event. At least a fifth (22%) of the same audience say they maintain their usual monthly spending, indicating that while some may not be spending more, they’re still likely to be making room in their budgets during those months to buy what they need during the back-to-school retail season.

Among consumers who shop during Singles' Day, two-thirds (65%) say they spend more during the shopping event.

Roughly three in five consumers who shop during the summer holiday/vacation season or during Christmas say they increase their spending during those periods (63% and 62%, respectively). Approximately three in 10 say they maintain their usual monthly spending during summer holidays (29%) and Christmas (31%).

More than half of consumers who participate in Cyber Week (57%), Easter or Spring break (57%), Amazon Prime Day (53%) say they increase how much they typically spend on a monthly basis.

Download the full report to uncover further global and market-level insights such as:

  • The market potential for key seasonal events across the world
  • The sources consumers use to inspire their buying decisions
  • How they are purchasing for each seasonal event and holiday tentpoles
  • What products and services are being purchased and who they are purchasing them for


Methodology

The data in the report is drawn from global YouGov Custom Research exploring shopping and consumption behavior in relation to seasonal events. The custom survey exclusively focuses on the following events: Christmas or Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, Black Friday or Cyber Monday, Summer Holidays, Easter or Spring Break, Back-to-School, Amazon Prime Day/Week, Halloween, and Singles’ Day. This research was conducted across 18 global markets and fielded between 23rd February 2022 and 15th March 2022.

The data is weighted to be nationally representative of Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico (with an urban bias), Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, UAE, Great Britain, and the United States. Insights are drawn from online representative samples in China, Hong Kong, and Indonesia and a nationally urban representative sample in India.


Discover more retail content here

Run your own custom research with YouGov Realtime Omnibus