Holiday Decorating Destined to Be Big This Season, according to new research study from Unity Marketing

Furniture World Magazine

As the days grow shorter and the leaves begin to turn, shoppers look to their favorite stores for new seasonal decorations. Consumer purchases of Christmas and seasonal decorations have risen sharply since 2000, according to a new research report from Unity Marketing, Gifts & Decorative Accents Report, 2003:The Market, The Competitors, The Future Trends. Over 60 percent of consumers reported buying Christmas or seasonal decorations in 2002, up from 50 percent of U.S. households in 2000. "In the fall of 2001 the consumer psychology of holiday decorating changed dramatically," says luxury marketing expert Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of Why People Buy Things They Don’t Need. "After 9-11 we saw how powerful decorations can be in communicating personal values and feelings. Today more and more households are creating new decorating traditions. For example, Halloween decorating has shifted from the ghostly and ghoulish to life-affirming harvest-home themes, which also extends the decorating season right through Thanksgiving. Then Christmas and Chanukah decorating begins." "In uncertain times, consumers seek to connect with family traditions from the past and to bring those into the present. When they unpack treasured decorations, and the new ones they will add to their collections this season, they re-connect with their past and project the tradition into the future," Danziger says. Retail sales of decorations rise 6.4% in 2002 Sales of Christmas and other seasonal decorations totaled $4.65 billion at retail in 2002, up over six percent from the $4.37 billion spent the previous year. While Christmas accounts for nearly two-thirds of consumer spending, harvest-home and Thanksgiving decorations are the fastest growing categories in seasonal decorations. With sales just shy of $600 million, harvest-home sales grew 42 percent over the previous year, while sales of Halloween-themed decorations dropped 22 percent to $458 million. In the Christmas category, more expensive collectible ornaments, designed for consumers to keep and add year-after-year to their collection, posted strongest growth, up 17 percent to $834 million at retail. "Outdoor Christmas decorations are also gaining in popularity as manufacturers introduce lighted wire sculptures with movement. Kids young and old are fascinated by these animated light sculptures," Danziger says. Shoppers turn to discount department stores for decorations. Many Wal-Mart stores have already started to put out Christmas merchandise. "It’s a good thing too," explains Danziger, "since discount department stores are the first choice of shoppers for seasonal decorations. These stores are especially favored by consumers ages 35-to-54 years and families with children, the exact demographic profile of the prime market for decorations." Traditional department stores, specialty retailers, such as gift stores, home improvement and garden centers, follow as leading sources of decorations. "An important new source for decorations is non-store retailers, such as the Internet, television shopping and catalog/mail order. More than 10 percent of consumers reported they shopped for decorations in the past year with non-store retailers. The demographics of the non-store buyer skews toward the luxury market, consumers ages 45-to-54 with incomes of $75,000 plus." This new research report, Gifts & Decorative Accents Report, 2003:The Market, The Competitors, The Future Trends, is available from Unity Marketing which examines the gift and decorative accents industry and marketplace. Based upon surveys of over 130 giftware companies, the report describes the industry’s sales by segment, leading categories, distribution channels and growth trends. A new survey among a representative sample of 1,000 U.S. adults adds the consumer perspective on purchasing, spending and places where consumers shop for giftware items