WASHINGTON – With Black Friday later this week marking the official launch of the holiday shopping season, the National Retail Federation said its 2010 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions survey has found that 43% of holiday shoppers will rely on debit cards as a primary form of payment, a 20% increase from 2005’s 34.3%.
Slightly more than a quarter (27.6%) of shoppers will charge their gifts – the lowest since 2002’s 26.8% – and 25.7% will use cash, up from 24.9% last year, the NRF reported.
The survey further found that 20.3% of holiday gift givers say they will buy jewelry, up from 18.4% last year, with other popular gifts including clothing or clothing accessories (58.5%), gift cards (55.1%), books, CDs, DVDs, videos or video games (52.8%), toys (41.9%), and food or candy (28.8%).
