UK consumers will still prioritise buying gifts this Christmas and Black Friday with average budgets set at £476 and £269 respectively.
That’s according to Future Publishing, the global platform for specialist media, which published details of a survey on the way the current cost-of-living-crisis is affecting consumers’ Christmas spirit and plans for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
It published the findings alongside its retail product transaction data from the Amazon Prime Early Access Sale in October.
Christmas spending 2022
Together, the data paints a detailed picture of how the economic climate is affecting consumer attitudes towards shopping ahead of the golden quarter of retail, Future said.
In June 2022, the company launched the first wave of its cost of living and Christmas survey in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The latest findings are its UK results from the second wave of research conducted in September 2022.
Across both waves Future contacted a demographically representative sample of over 3,500 Christmas partakers from the UK all recruited independently via Future’s research platform, The Lens.
The analysis reveals UK consumers will still prioritise buying gifts this Christmas and Black Friday with average budgets set at £476 and £269 respectively.
Purchase intent increases for Future’s audience specifically by 49% at Christmas and 14% for Black Friday.
Premium publishers such as Future are continuously supplying consumers with the editorial content they need to access the best deals and make informed buying decisions ahead of these key retail events.
As Black Friday and Cyber Monday approach, engagement is stable from consumers. However, there is a noticeable increase in shopping intent from both Future audiences and the average UK consumer when it comes to ‘shopping for myself’.
During wave one research, 30% of UK consumers (vs 41% for Future audiences) ‘bought for themselves’; this rose to 38% (vs 47% for Future audiences) during wave two.
Kitchens and headphones win out
The biggest purchase consideration winners in terms of the percentage change between June and September were small to medium kitchen appliances (+22%), large kitchen appliances (+9%) and headphones (+7%).
Future’s latest insights on retail product transactions from Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale in October evidenced this behaviour with consumers opting to buy items such as personal audio accessories over larger luxury items like TVs.
Eight in 10 of the top products bought were either headphones or earbuds.
While consumer spending cutbacks remain at a similar level between June (81%) and September (85%), when consumers are spending, they are doing so on items that help them manage the cost of living crisis.
During the Prime Early Access event, among the top transacted items were digital Thermo-Hygrometer’s that enable consumers to precisely monitor the temperature and humidity of their homes remotely, as well as energy-saving air fryers that reduce reliance on ovens.
In October 2021 Future saw 101 transactions through its platform for air fryers.This jumped to 1,000 transactions in October 2022 – an increase of 890%.
During this time, Future’s Homes portfolio produced 279 articles on air fryers, 172 articles more than in October 2021.
“At Future we are able to leverage two key competitive advantages to help consumers make smart purchasing decisions; best-in-class editorial and our dynamic price comparison technology, Hawk,” said Simon Rawle, eCommerce Director, Retail at Future Publishing.
“During the Amazon Prime Early Access Sale, our editorial teams curated a broad range of deals and ‘smart shopping’ content which focussed as much on value as product performance.
“Our data shows that consumers are more willing than ever to consider lesser known brands in order to save money.
“We add value in this scenario by testing products at a wide range of price points, helping shoppers to see beyond a discount and identify which deals offer true value.
“Additionally, where we see high demand – air fryers for example – Hawk allows us to scrape a database of over 2,500 retailers to find and surface stock dynamically.
“This combination of editorial and tech underpins the value that we add to both consumers and retailers during key shopping periods.”