Survey: Peak season 2023 expectations for consumer spending, shipping, and product availability

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Aug. 31, 2023 – While 58% of consumers are planning to spend approximately the same amount of money during peak season 2023 as they did in 2022, many are still worried about the rising cost of goods and if they will be able to afford gifts this year. This and other findings are reflected in new research from Kenco, one of North America’s leading third-party logistics (3PL) providers.

These outcomes were part of Kenco’s 2023 eCommerce Peak Season Pulse, which surveyed more than 225 U.S. adult consumers to gauge their expected holiday spending, shopping plans and concerns.

As inflation pushes up the price of consumer goods, more than half (54%) of respondents worry they will not be able to afford the gifts they want to buy. To counteract, consumers will search for online and in-store deals – 65% of respondents plan to take advantage of a shopping holiday. Specifically, 59% say they will shop on Black Friday and 53% will seek deals on Cyber Monday, while 44% have already taken advantage of goods sold on Prime Day. Additionally, more than one-third (35%) will be taking advantage of post-holiday sales.

“Armed with this knowledge, retailers should consider marketing additional sales and creating more shopping holidays to not only spread-out consumer spending, but also flatten the curve of peak season logistics and its respective labor challenges,” said Jason Minghini, Senior Vice President of Operations at Kenco. “By incentivizing consumers to shop on additional days, retailers can also avoid potential shipping delays caused by high order volumes.”

Another way that retailers can spread out product shipping and offer a money-saving service to consumers is to incentivize slower delivery. Most consumers (72%) would opt for slower shipping if it meant their packages arrived for free. Nearly three-quarters (74%) will take slower shipping speeds if provided an incentive such as saving on an order (72%), a gift card or store credit (64%) or a free upgrade to faster shipping on a future purchase (25%).

Although supply chain kinks have significantly improved over the last three years and 52% of respondents show no supply chain concerns, 60% of consumers still worry about product availability for this year. In fact, 42% of consumers have already started their peak season shopping to get ahead of these concerns.

“With many retailers struggling with inventory surpluses, there is an opportunity here to target these early shoppers,” said Dave Hauptman, Chief Commercial Officer at Kenco. “Retailers can pull out and promote their inventory overstock earlier, reducing the amount of products in their warehouses and stores and also potentially reducing order spikes on more traditional shopping holidays.”

For additional data from Kenco’s 2023 eCommerce Peak Season Pulse, or to learn more about Kenco, visit https://go.kencogroup.com/ecomm-consumer-peak-survey-2023.