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spending this year, overall retailers • Home and kitchen ($157)
are poised for a successful holiday • Health and wellness ($126)
season," said Tom McGee, president
and CEO of the International Council "High prices have holiday shoppers prioritizing their purchases, but there
of Shopping Centers. are bright lights throughout the season," said Nick Handrinos, Deloitte vice

Shopping local pays dividends chair. Deloitte surveyed both consumers and retailers in September and found
retailers to be especially optimistic about the year-end holiday season, with 77
American Express estimated percent expecting sales totals this year to exceed 2021 holiday sales totals.
consumers spent $17.9 billion both
online and in-person at small Deloitte also found that better than half of the consumers it surveyed had plans
businesses on what has become to use smartphones for their holiday shopping.
known as Small Business Saturday.
The Electronic Transactions Association and The Strawhecker Group also
The federal government estimates surveyed consumers on their holiday shopping plans, and probed their usage
there are 33 million small businesses of new payment methods. Forty-eight percent said they use digital wallets; 39
operating in the United States. AmEx percent use tap-to-pay/NFC-enabled payments.
began a concerted effort in 2010 to
promote holiday shopping at these Another noteworthy finding of the ETA-TSG survey: four out of 10 digital wallet
businesses on the Saturday following users are at least "somewhat confident" leaving the house without a physical
Thanksgiving, and the event has wallet. Commenting on the survey results, Jodie Kelley, the ETA's CEO, noted
been gaining steam ever since. that "when it comes to adopting new payments technology, ease of use is most
important."
Recently released AmEx research
revealed that the "shop small" Patti Murphy is senior editor at The Green Sheet and self-described payments maven of
movement contributes significantly
to local economies. Sixty-eight cents the fourth estate. She also co-hosts the Merchant Sales Podcast. Follow her on Twitter @
of every dollar spent at a small GS_PayMaven.
business in the United States stays
in the local community, according to
AmEx's research. And every dollar
spent at a small business creates an
additional 48 cents in local business
activity from local businesses and
their employees.
Gift cards top many gifting lists

Gift cards are one of the most HOLIDAY PAYMENT
popular gifts to give and receive
this year. A survey of consumers by SOLUTIONS
the consultancy Deloitte found three
out of four expected to purchase gift
cards this holiday season, with an ACH • LEVEL III • EMV
average spend of $252. On the other
side of the gifting process, an NRF
survey found 54 percent of consumers WEB • RECURRING
want to receive gift cards, outpacing
nine other categories of popular gifts.
CASH DISCOUNT
Here are other popular gift-buying
plans, as predicted by Deloitte: CUSTOMER DATABASE
• Clothing and accessories (with
an estimated average spend of
$262) C A L L F O R A D E M O
• Electronics and accessories
($209) 8 0 0 - 2 9 6 - 4 8 1 0
• Food and beverage ($202)
• Toys and hobbies ($177)

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