More Holiday Dollars Up For Grabs in 2014: Social Media & Mobile Shopping Top Influencers

Can you hear those sleigh bells ringing? Or could that be the Ka-Ching of a cash register? The holidays have grown more and more to be about shopping and scoring the best sales than sadly, traditions like sitting around the table bonding with family.

The new bonding actually happens away from the dinner table for many—shopping from store to store for the best deals. Along with this comes new trends that we’ll be seeing take solid form this year.

A new report from PunchTab looked at the purchase drivers for the Holiday 2014 shopping season among consumers and retailers and uncovered some interesting points.

One finding—that perhaps supports the claim that our economy is on the fix, is that 77 percent more people said they will spend the same or more money this year.

Figuring out just what to buy people for gifts had different responses based on which generation was answering.

While most consumers (66 percent across the groups) said talking with people was the best way to get information on what gift to by, others also said going to the stores to shopping around in person (55 percent) and checking out wish lists (42 percent) was the plan. Another 40 percent also said they would be going online and browsing brand websites.

While many millennial (77 percent) said they would use word of mouth as a way to find out about products, social networks are also becoming a key resource for shoppers when it comes to purchasing decisions.

Almost half of the millennial respondents said they would use a social media channel.  Facebook (News - Alert) came in first place as the spot people would go when deciding on gifts – with Pinterest (of most popularity with female shoppers) and YouTube following behind, respectively.

Finally, mobile phones continue to be an important tool for shoppers. Consumers – especially the younger generation, said this holiday season they would be using their mobile devices for everything from helping them to shop for and purchase items from online stores to even helping them price compare offerings from various stores before they make a buying decision. Some even said they would use their mobile phones to send texts to others and pictures of items while in the store. Also, finding coupons to use for additional savings via a mobile device is a new way mobile shoppers are getting smarter and more innovating about shopping this holiday season.

With shopping tactics switching, it will be interesting to see which retailers meet consumer demands this season, and which we’ll be hearing horror stories about after it's all over.