The US economy is doing great right now, which means customers are feeling more comfortable spending extra cash on the holidays. As a business, this is the perfect opportunity to secure new and long lasting customer relationships as well as continue to develop relationships with current customers. But how, exactly, can you take advantage of that extra high holiday spending? An artificial intelligence startup can definitely give you the information you need to market to your current customer base, but it might not necessarily tell you what their friends and family want. Here are a few holiday spending statistics to get you started.

Average Spending Categories

Consumers anticipate spending an average of $967.13 this year on the holidays, 49% of which will be spent on gifts for families and 13% of which will be spent on gifts for friends or coworkers. That means consumers will spend almost $600 this holiday season on friends and family gifts. This means your marketing strategy should revolve around working to convince customers that your product or service would make the perfect gift for their family and friends.

Online Shopping is Massive

As of this holiday season, 59% of consumers say they are doing their shopping online. It is has officially become more popular to shop online than to shop at brick and mortar stores. Businesses need to start focusing on online sales and providing a better online sales environment. Make sure it is quick and easy to check out with your product; focus on fluidity in the checkout process. It is also important to have transparency on your site with a fast and easy way for customers to get questions answered. This might include clearly stating your return policy or answering faqs about specific products.

Small Business Shop

Of the shoppers in the survey, 25% said they prefered to shop small and local businesses. This gives businesses a huge opportunity to focus on advertising to their local community as well as advertising with other small businesses. Here are a few examples of ways you can market to customers who are interested in purchasing from small and local companies.

• Small Business: Focus on online marketing, especially marketing through social media sites. Influencers are extremely helpful to small businesses. Work with other small businesses to run promotions and promote each other’s companies in support of other small businesses.
• Local Businesses: Promote your business locally by offering special sales in store only or offering charitable donations to a local community service. Show up to local fairs and show off your business offerings. Make yourself known to the community and show that you care.

What gifts do people want?

The number one gift customers have asked for this year is gift cards, as 61% said that’s what they’d prefer. Fortunately, nearly every business can offer gift cards for their products or services. A gift card for a cleaning company may be just as valuable to a customer as a gift card to Target or a gift card for a toy store. When marketing during the holidays, especially in the last week leading up to Christmas, focus on letting your customers know exactly how your product or service makes a great gift and that they can also opt for a gift card option if they’d prefer.

Some of the other popular gifts included clothing and accessories (55%), books and other media (39%), electronics (33%), and decor or home furnishings (24%). Knowing what the typical customer wants for a gift will help your business market what you have to offer more efficiently. Of course, a gift card might be the number one thing customers are looking for on Christmas morning, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t just as interested as opening up a new phone or picture frame. The key is to market to your current customers and potentially new ones that your product or service has a giftable value. They may not even realize that what you have to offer is the perfect gift until they get your text, email, or social media ad.