Shop early to help save £1.9bn on Christmas gifts, says Egg
Tuesday, 07 Dec 2004 13:55
Leaving it late to buy presents means you are more likely to both overspend, and buy unsuitable gifts, Egg has found
By shopping early consumers can save £1.9 billion on Christmas gifts, Egg has found.
The internet bank has discovered that people who leave their shopping until the last minute are four times as likely to waste their cash on unsuitable gifts than people who shop with two or three weeks to go.
Additionally, those shopping on the night before Christmas are 60 per cent more likely to overspend than the organised few who shop well in advance.
A YouGov poll for financial services firm KPMG, also released today, found that 44 per cent of shoppers means to complete their present buying no earlier than the week before Christmas, with 13 per cent more planning to finish as late as Christmas eve itself.
As things stand more than one in five people (23 per cent) say they have done no Christmas shopping at all this year, while just one in seven have finished their shopping already.
In total, Britons look set to spend £22 billion on presents for friends and relatives this year, with nine per cent of that money being lavished on presents that turn out to be unsuitable (£1.9 billion), Egg found.
However, while people who do their shopping in good time waste just four per cent of their money on gifts that are unwanted, this figure jumps to 15 per cent for those who shop on Christmas eve.
People who leave their shopping late are also the most likely to overspend on gifts, with £873 million set to be splashed out on December 24 by 1.4 million shoppers.
"Each year we get 12 months advance warning that Christmas is coming, but still often resort to financing it out of December's pay packet," noted Andy Deller, banking and insurance director at Egg.
"Consumers need to try to find ways to drive down the overall cost of Christmas - one way seems to be by avoiding those last minute shopping sprees, when lack of choice and panic buying are rife," he added.
Another way to avoid the 'high street hell' of last minute Christmas shopping is to use the internet.
Nearly half of the population now shops online and the interactive media in retail group (IMRG) estimates that £4 billion will be spent online by British shoppers this Christmas by 18 million people.
A study by shopping search engine Kelkoo found shopping online resulted in an average saving of 19 per cent for a typical basket of eight Christmas presents - with savings of up to 30 per cent on products like perfumes and DVDs.
IMRG, however, pointed out that last minute shoppers will have to get in early, with popular items like Mini iPods and LDC DVD players selling fast, additionally Tuesday December 21 will be the last pre-Christmas shopping day for many online retailers, but shoppers should look for specific delivery deadlines
ICM polled 1033 people on behalf of Egg to find out how many people would be buying 'dud' gifts this year.
The poll found that 19 per cent of Britons shop two to three weeks ahead of Christmas, with 38 per cent spending too much. Just one gift in 25 bought then turns out to be unsuitable.
Shopping with one or two weeks to go sees the chances of buying an unsuitable gift double, while three per cent more people overspend.
Twelve per cent of the population wait until the week before Christmas, but people waiting until December 24 are the most likely to buy both unsuitable gifts and to overspend. While Just three per cent of the population wait this long, 15 per cent of the gifts (one in six) bought then turn out to be unsuitable and 62 per cent of these shoppers overspend.