The National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates that the average holiday shopper will spend $749.51 on gifts, décor, greeting cards and more, compared to the $740.57 they actually spent last year. Their 2012 Holiday Consumer Spending Survey estimates that holiday sales will increase 4.1 percent to $586.1 billion.

“We’ve seen this pattern of cautious optimism all year and despite the challenges that still exist in our economy, it looks as if consumers are eager to celebrate with friends and family,” said Matthew Shay, NRF president and CEO.

The average spender will put $51.99 into decorations, with décor spending at $6.9 billion total. On various eccentricities, consumers will spend on average $100.76 on food and candy, $28.66 on greeting cards, and $19.55 on flowers.

The biggest portion of shoppers’ budgets this year will go toward gifts for family members, with $421.82 going towards gifts for children, parents, aunts, uncles and others. Additionally, people will spend $75.13 on friends, $23.48 on co-workers and $28.13 on others, such as pets and community members.

52.3 percent said the state of the U.S. economy will affect their spending plans, down from 62.2 percent last year, showing improving dispositions over the economy as a whole. 31.4 percent of consumers affected by the economy will comparative shop online more often, 46.4 percent will shop for sales more often, 23.2 percent will travel less or not at all, and 6.0 percent will comparative shop using their mobile device.

If you’ve been annoyed by those holiday shopping ads before Halloween, you won’t see those going away as 41.4 percent of Americans said they will begin holiday shopping before Halloween. 22.1 percent said they will begin in October, up from 20.3 percent last year and 39 percent will begin in November, 16.2 percent will begin in first two weeks of December and only 3.5 percent will wait until the very last minute and shop in the last two weeks of December.

65.3 percent of Americans will shop at discount stores and more than half 57.8 percent will shop at department stores. Clothing stores 36.2 percent, electronics stores 31.8 percent and specialty stores 16.7 percent will be popular with holiday shoppers as well, while 51.8 percent will shop at a grocery store for holiday items, up from 48.8 percent last year.

More than half, or 51.8 percent, will shop online for gifts and other items this holiday season, up from 46.7 percent last year, setting a new high and the average person will complete about 38.8 percent of their shopping on retailers’ and other companies’ websites, another survey high. Shop.org, NRF’s digital division, is forecasting online holiday sales will grow 12 percent to as much as $96 billion.

Non-gifts will be big this year, as 59.0 percent plan to spend an average of $139.92 on “self-gifting” this holiday season. 59.8 percent of those polled said they’d like to receive gift cards this year, up from 57.7 percent last year and the most in the survey’s history, while 49.1 percent said they would like clothing, 45.7 percent said books, CD, DVDs, videos, or video games, and more than one-third 35.8 percent are requesting electronics or computer-related accessories, while 24.0 percent want jewelry, the most seen since 2008.

The most important factors in deciding where to shop are offers for sales and discounts for 36.6 percent, while 16.1 percent said the most important factor is selection of merchandise and 13.7 percent said quality of merchandise. More than half 52.9 percent of those who own smartphones and nearly two-thirds 64.1 percent of those who own tablets plan to use their devices to research and purchase holiday gifts, décor, food items, and more.

Source: HomeAccentsToday.com