Holiday spending down for B.C. shoppers, online and local shopping up: poll

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — New research shows holiday spending is going to be sharply reduced this year, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new poll from Insights West shows holiday shoppers across B.C. will spend, on average, 42 per cent less this year compared to 2019.

Local Support

Polling data shows a lack of enthusiasm and eagerness for holiday shopping in 2020, which has been particularly hard for small- to medium-sized businesses.

Many of these businesses rely on strong holiday sales, but it seems like the prospect of a last-minute resurgence in spending isn’t happening.

The downturn in overall sales does, however, favor a silver-lining for local businesses which can expect to see more people shopping locally and within their community.

“If there is any consolation, it is that consumers are going out of their way to support the local economy, and they are shopping earlier,” Steve Mossop, president of Insights West says. “We show that 37 per cent plan to do more shopping locally in their own municipality and 31 per cent taking it down to a neighborhood level that plan to spend more in their local neighborhood than previous years.”

Women spending less

The data also shows more women are spending less than men this year — 48 per cent of women polled will be spending less, compared to 36 per cent of men.

Mossop explains the data mirrors what we’ve seen throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Women disproportionately have felt the financial pain of the pandemic more than men and that’s been consistent throughout the last eight months. So it’s maybe not surprising that women are spending a little bit less than what men intend to spend this year and that’s an unfortunate side effect of where the pandemic has taken us.”

The research also shows people aged 18 to 34, who are among the hardest-hit financially by the health crisis, intend to actually spend 23 per cent more than other age groups.

Only 17 per cent of 35 to 54 year olds will spend more this year and for those over 55, only nine per cent will be spending more than 2019.

Online shopping soars

COVID-19-related fears and a number of brick and mortar stores remaining closed due to the pandemic are helping lead the surge in online spending this year

Insights West has found the number of B.C. shoppers doing more online shopping this year is nearly double what it was in 2019 (61 per cent this year compared to 33 per cent last year.)

“Sixty-one per cent of us plan to do more online shopping versus 33 per cent of us last year. It also shows 64 per cent of us plan to do the majority of our holiday shopping online this year.”

Only seven per cent of respondents say they would be doing less online shopping this year.

Meanwhile, concerns over inventory stability and delays in shipping have pushed B.C. shoppers to get a head start on their plans.

“We’ve seen all the news headlines about the Amazon employees that have been hired for the seasonal shopping period,” Mossop says. “We’ve seen backlogs already in shipping, so people have been listening to that.”

The data shows the average shopper has finished 42 per cent of their shopping at the end of November. There’s an eager six per cent who have finished buying all their and the less diligent 24 per cent who haven’t even started.

Hope for the holidays

Despite many people earning less and consequently spending less this year due to the pandemic, Mossop says it appears B.C. charities will be getting more support from the community this holiday season.

“In the early days of the pandemic the charitable giving numbers across Canada have dropped an average of something like 35 per cent. There’s a small glimmer of hope in the holidays where 26 per cent more people in B.C. will be giving more, which is more than double the 12 per cent who will give less.”

Around 43 per cent said they’d give about the same as last year.