Consumers Spending Less This Holiday

Thirty percent of consumers say they will spend less money during the upcoming holiday shopping season than in years past, according to leading market research company The NPD Group, Inc. This is a slight increase from last year’s poll of consumers asking the same question.

The National Retail Federation is projecting holiday retail industry sales to decline 1% this year to $437.6 billion. While this number falls significantly below the 10-year average of 3.39% holiday season growth, the decline is not expected to be as dramatic as last year’s 3.4% drop in holiday retail sales.

A 3% decline in annual retail industry sales is expected for 2009 as a whole.

A separate survey by Burst Media says 85.3% of respondents will shop online this holiday.