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ThinkNow Retail™ Asian Holiday Shopping Trends 2016 [Snapshot]

November 3, 2016 Author: Mario X. Carrasco

40% of Asian-American consumers will be spending more during the holidays this year than last, preferring to buy gifts online.

The National Retail Federation expects sales in November and December (excluding autos, gas and restaurants) to jump 3.6 percent from last year to $655 billion. The NRF’s Holiday Forecast 2016 has non-store sales — 90 percent of which is e-commerce — growing by seven to 10 percent to as much as $117 billion. And one demographic, in particular, is driving a significant amount of that growth: Asian-American consumers, the fastest growing minority segment in the U.S.

In our recent in-depth research series, ThinkNow Retail™ – Total Market Holiday Shopping Trends, we conducted an online survey of 253 Asian, 245 non-Hispanic white, 249 African-American, and 502 U.S. Hispanic consumers. We explored the holiday shopping habits of multicultural consumers in the U.S. to help brands and companies better understand these super holiday consumers and how they compare to the rest of the country. This report highlights the top 5 key holiday shopping habits and behavioral insights we uncovered among the Asian-American cohort.

Asian-American consumers represent $825 billion in consumer buying power — which is expected to rise to $1.1 trillion by 2020. They display unique holiday shopping habits that allow points of entry for marketers to connect with them this holiday season, which is a major factor because almost 40% of Asian-American consumers will be spending more this year than last. A significant portion of those sales will be online. And not only are they purchasing their gifts online, but they are also researching their gift list online, and are more likely to move on to the next item if the gift they are looking for is not available for purchase online.

Download ThinkNow Retail™ – Total Market Holiday Shopping Trends: Asian-American Focus for additional insights and marketing implications.

Download this study.