Eighty percent of Americans are looking forward to a fun, family-filled Easter holiday, according to the National Retail Federation’s Easter Spending Survey conducted by Prosper Insights and Analytics. And this family time is met with increased spending. Total spending for Easter, which includes purchases of apparel, decorations, gifts, candy, food, flowers and more, is expected to reach $16.4 billion.*
This year, consumers will use Easter as an opportunity to spruce up their spring wardrobes. According to the survey, 45 percent of those celebrating will purchase clothing, spending more than $2.9 billion on bright colored apparel items for themselves and their families. However, more people plan to buy food for the holiday: 85.7 percent will purchase food for a family meal or other festivity, spending more than $5.3 billion on Easter fare.
Children and sweet-tooth craving adults will also purchase candy this Easter: 87.1 percent of those celebrating say they will buy candy, spending more than $2.2 billion on jelly beans, chocolate bunnies and chick-shaped Peeps. Consumers this holiday will also spend $2.4 billion on gifts, $1.1 billion on flowers, $998 million on decorations and $695 million on greeting cards.
With a laundry list of items to buy, 58.6 percent will head to discount stores to purchase their holiday merchandise. Another four in 10 (40.7 percent) will shop at department stores, while nearly one-quarter (23.8 percent) plan to shop at a local or small business. Additionally, 21.8 percent will head to a specialty store like a florist or jewelry store and 18.8 percent will shop online.
For the first time, the NRF asked consumers about the activities they are planning for Easter Sunday, and the survey found many of the traditional aspects of the holiday will be in. The survey found nearly six in 10 (57.4 percent) plan to visit with friends and family, half (50.8 percent) will go to church and 12.9 percent plan to open gifts. Not forgetting the little ones, three in 10 (30.9 percent) adults will plan a special Easter egg hunt for the children in their lives. Additionally, 15 percent of those celebrating will opt out of doing dishes and head to a restaurant to celebrate the holiday and 24.1 percent will browse the Web throughout the day.
Busy Easter shoppers will take advantage of their mobile devices to help find meal items, gifts, candy and more. According to the survey, 21.4 percent of those who own smartphones and are planning to celebrate Easter will use their phone to research products and/or compare prices, and another 13.5 percent will purchase items with their smartphone. Nearly one-quarter (24.9 percent) of tablet owners will research products and/or compare prices for their Easter needs on tablets and 16.6 percent will purchase something via their tablet.
* Total spending is an extrapolation of the U.S. population 18+
About the survey
The NRF 2015 Easter Spending Survey conducted for NRF by Prosper Insights and Analytics was designed to gauge consumer behavior and shopping trends related to Easter spending. The poll of consumers was conducted from March 3-10, 2015. The consumer poll of 6,106 has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.3 percentage points. Download the complete survey here.