Despite economic unease, holiday spending is expected to hold relatively steady. A PwC survey found consumers plan to spend around $700 on gifts this season, only a 2% dip. Millennials are pulling back the hardest, projecting a 10% drop in gift spending and a 37% decline in travel spending.
Airfares are adding to the strain, running 9% to 13% higher than last year for Thanksgiving travel, according to The Points Guy. Four in 10 consumers plan to travel, though one-third say they will skip airfare entirely. Meanwhile, 29% of shoppers plan to use AI for holiday shopping, up 7 percentage points from last year.
