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Marcus Brandt / dpa
According to a survey, the vast majority of people in Germany fear that buying Christmas presents this year will be more expensive than originally planned due to the delivery bottlenecks.
A good half (54 percent) of consumers expect prices to rise slightly, and more than a quarter (29 percent) expect prices to rise significantly, as a representative survey published on Monday by management consultancy Ernst & Young (EY) revealed.
Around 30 percent of those surveyed stated that they wanted to bring their Christmas shopping forward due to delivery problems. More than half (55 percent) want to do most of their Christmas shopping in November. Another third want to get the presents in the first two weeks of December. Only one in ten respondents want to wait until shortly before the festival to buy gifts.
Most often, however, cash or vouchers will again be found on the gift table this year. Almost every second respondent (47 percent) plans, according to the survey, to save themselves the tedious search for a suitable gift in this way. However, the popularity of gifts in cash and vouchers has recently decreased. A year ago, 59 percent of those surveyed wanted to give away a voucher or money, two years ago as much as 69 percent. Groceries, confectionery, toys, books, clothing and cosmetics are also popular as gifts this year.
The importance of online retail for gift shopping is likely to increase again this year.
Around 30 percent of those surveyed said they preferred to do their Christmas shopping online.
For comparison: in 2020 it was only 28 percent and in the pre-Corona year 2019 only 17 percent of the respondents.
For a good third of those surveyed (35 percent), however, the traditional local retailer is the first choice when shopping for gifts this year as well.
For comparison: in the previous year it was 42 percent.
Around 35 percent of those surveyed said they had no preference and looked for gifts both online and in-store.
mik / dpa-AFX
