Christmas 2020: Consumers do not save on gifts
Swiss consumers plan to spend an average of CHF 397 on toy Christmas gifts this year. The positive trend in online retailing continues into the Advent weeks, as shown by a recent GfK analysis of this year's Christmas business.
With a budget for toy Christmas gifts of CHF 397 on average, according to the analysis, planned spending this year is at a higher level than in 2019, with men much more likely to spend: they plan to spend CHF 510 on average, compared to CHF 281 for women.
According to GfK, this spending probably refers not only to pure toys, but also to related areas such as game consoles, cell phones, headphones, bicycles, etc.
Christmas gifts increasingly bought online
Online retail has benefited very strongly from the Covid 19 pandemic, which is also reflected in Christmas sales. According to GfK analysis, Swiss consumers are buying more Christmas gifts for toys online this year than usual. The proportion of those who only shop online has doubled compared to 2019 (2019: 6 percent; 2020: 12 percent). Shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, on the other hand, has become less relevant this year: the proportion of Swiss consumers who store exclusively in stores has fallen from 30 percent to 22 percent.
"Many people are afraid of catching the corona virus and the shopping experience is clouded due to hygiene measures," comments Kurt Meister, market expert at GfK, on this development. "In addition, many consumers learned to appreciate the benefits of online retailing during the lockdown in April and had positive experiences with ordering, delivery and customer service. It is therefore to be expected that online retailing will continue to develop positively."
"Black Friday" gains in importance
This year, "Black Friday" is also under the - positive - influence of the Covid 19 pandemic. The proportion of consumers who purchased toys online in advance rose from 13 percent to 16 percent. In French-speaking Switzerland, the proportion is significantly higher at 21 percent compared to German-speaking Switzerland (14 percent).
Continued heterogeneous picture in terms of timing of purchases
As in the previous year, 56 percent of respondents made their main toy purchases at least one month before Christmas Eve and benefited from recurring annual promotions from retailers. However, it is still 26 percent who have not made any relevant toy purchases two weeks before the gift-giving - and are then also prepared to pay full price.
Men tend to take it easy (28 percent), while a larger proportion of women (22 percent) have already stocked up ahead of time.
The representative Online survey by GfK in German- and French-speaking Switzerland for the Christmas business was conducted from December 3 to 8, 2020.
