It’s not exactly secret information to men, nor to the women who know them and love them: men do more of their holiday shopping at the last minute.
“The conventional notion that men are procrastinators when it comes to shopping seems to be holding true again this year,” reports eMarketer. “The gap between men and women isn’t dramatic, but it seems to be pretty steady.”
Retailers nationwide know the scoop and might be wise to do some special targeting of this demographic. A National Retail Federation (NRF) survey early in December revealed that 16.6 percent of men hadn’t begun holiday shopping (the percentage was 13.6 percent for women).
It’s a trend NRF surveys have observed for the past five years. The big excuse, according to the surveys?
“For those who had 50 percent or less of their holiday shopping wrapped up, men tended to cite reasons that smacked of procrastination, saying that they relished the “thrill of last-minute shopping,” or calling holiday shopping “a necessary evil” that they put off for as long as possible,” notes the NRF.
Fortunately for these men, they don’t “have the same shopping responsibility” as women, report analysts.
“The average woman buys Christmas gifts for 5 to 11 people,” said Britt Beemer, chairman and founder of consumer research and consulting firm America’s Research Group, in an interview. “Men buy for one or two. They can wait till the last minute. Men typically allow their wives to buy what they want. You don’t see many fathers buying their children Christmas gifts.”
But Beemer believes that — as more men buy online, and are able to go mobile instead of to physical stores — their shopping timetable could improve.
