Burst Media Predicts Stable Holiday Spending

The holidays are a magical time of year when kids can tire of mountains of toys and more sensitive people can fall in love with a well-picked card.  Fortunately for small businesses, data from Burst Media indicates most consumers won’t try to opt for cheap stuff and homemade gifts this year.

Burst surveyed 2,600 American adults before reaching this conclusion, so its findings should be somewhat sound.  The only thing worth noting is that the people were surveyed online, so the results might skew towards the tech-savvy.

Now for the findings.  Burst said in a statement, "More than one-third (36.0%) of consumers expect to spend the same on holiday gifts this year compared to 2009, 17.4% plan to spend more and 34.6% anticipate spending less."  Which makes for a better than 50/50 split.

Then Burst noted, "Online merchants especially are poised to benefit this holiday season, as more than half (56.5%) of respondents expect to make a gift purchase online this year.  One-quarter (26.8%) of consumers who bought online last year for the holidays say they will purchase more online in 2010, and one-half (52.9%) say they will purchase the same amount as they did in 2009."

So small businesses should be sure their sites are looking their best as we enter the holiday shopping season.

One other tip: small businesses with physical stores should be ready to make lots of change, as Burst found that lots of people plan to pay with cash.