Shoppers at the Walmart Supercenter in Burbank during Walmart’s multi-week Annual Deals Shopping Event in Burbank Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Allen J. Schaben | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Holiday shoppers expect to trim the tree and their spending this upcoming season, according to a survey by consulting firm PwC.<\/p>\n
Across generations, consumers said they plan to spend an average of $1,552 on holiday gifts, travel and entertainment \u2014 which represents a 5% drop from the planned holiday spending average in the year-ago period.<\/p>\n
Yet the sharpest decline comes from Generation Z, whose members said they plan to spend 23% less on average than a year ago. That’s the biggest drop of any generation and a significant swing from last year when they said they expected to spend 37% more. Their pullback is also contributing to the overall decline in holiday spending.<\/p>\n
“Price is Gen Z’s love language,” said Ali Furman, the U.S. consumer markets industry leader for PwC. “They’ve been raised in an era of rising costs. They’re laser-focused on value and cost transparency. For them, dupes aren’t a downgrade. They’re proof of smart shopping.”<\/p>\n
For retailers, Gen Z customers \u2014 who span in age from 13 to 29 and have an average age of 22 \u2014 are both an opportunity and a challenge, Furman said. As they enter adulthood, they tend to have smaller salaries, new expenses and debt to pay down, she said. Plus, she said, they are experience-driven, often prioritizing concert tickets, hotel stays and plane trips over buying new items, and they’re feeling the pinch as those experiences cost more.<\/p>\n
“Entertainment and vacations are taking up more of their wallet than they have, and therefore they have less to spend on holiday,” Furman said.<\/p>\n
It’s also been hard for retailers to keep up with young shoppers, who “are the fastest generation to adopt trends and abandon trends,” she said.<\/p>\n
For retailers, the survey’s findings highlight the uncertain backdrop for a holiday season that could be shaped, at least in part, by price sensitivity as companies debate how much to absorb and pass on higher tariff costs.<\/p>\n
All other generations’ holiday spending expectations were roughly flat compared with a year ago \u2014 with the exception of baby boomers, who plan to spend 5% more on average, according to PwC’s survey, which included a representative sample of 4,000 U.S. consumers and was conducted in late June and early July.<\/p>\n