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Holiday shoppers this year expect to spend on average $831 on gifts, a 7.3% decrease from the average $896 shoppers spent on gifts during the 2007 holiday season, according to a Discover Card survey data released today. Fifty-five percent of survey respondents said they plan to cut back on holiday spending. Of those, 89% said the economy has influenced their decision to spend less. Forty-five percent of respondents said they plan to spend between $100 and $500 this holiday season, while 27% expected to spend between $500 and $1,000. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they plan to give a gift card this season, and 64% stated they would like to receive an open-loop gift card. A majority of respondents, 74%, expressed concern about their finances. "The economy is clearly weighing on many minds this holiday season," Ryan Garton, director of customer insights at Discover Financial Services Inc., said in a statement. Opinion Research Corp. conducted the holiday shopping phone survey of 1,004 U.S. adults from Nov. 13 to 16.
