A Merrier Holiday For Merchants?

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

It’s a bit early to prognosticate on holiday spending, but the newly-released Prosper Spending Score offers some promising stats. According to the company’s research, consumers who indicate they’re setting less money aside for holiday gifts than they did last year dropped 11 percent from 2013, and those planning to spend more in 2014 topped 9 percent.  While nearly 53 percent of consumers indicate intent to hold the line on their 2013 holiday budgets, those metrics prompted the firm to peg the overall outlook for holiday gift spending to climb a healthy 8 percent over 2013.

The bad news, as I pointed out in columns last month, is for the hotly contested (and currently acquisition-minded) dollar store segment. Prosper’s data indicates that upper-income households (those earning more than $75,000 per year) exhibit a spending score that’s more than 13 percent higher than the overall average. Spending plans for low-income households (those earning below $35,000 per year) fall 15.3 percent below average.

The good news is for mid-line department stores. While high-income families might buoy holiday spending, Prosper’s data shows that middle-income families’ are showing the most positive outlook (up 7.3% over last year) on consumer spending.

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