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According to a survey commissioned by Deloitte, the budget they spend on gifts and Christmas Eve dinner is expected to decline by 17%. Unheard of. The French are on a diet before meals holiday season. For Christmas, they plan to spend 531 euros against 639 euros last year, or 17% less than in 2012! Never decade, these projections were too low. This is what emerges from the sixteenth edition of the study Christmas audit and consulting firm Deloitte in 18 countries in Europe published on Thursday, November 7. In France, 1,595 people were polled second and third weeks of September.
When asked what they actually spent last year for gifts, meals and entertainment, the decline was only 0.9%," tempers Stéphane Rimbeuf, Consumer responsible business partner at Deloitte.
Why French tighten the purse strings This sudden braking on expenses is explained by the very strong feeling in France a decline in purchasing power. "If 40% of French respondents feel this is the perception that it goes even lower in 2014 is striking," says Stéphane Rimbeuf. France is thus the only one in this case on all European countries surveyed by Deloitte.
Raising taxes and VAT are already in the mind. Thus, France is in the group of countries with Christmas expenses were down 0-3%, alongside Ireland, Portugal and Italy. Only Greece is worse with forecasts drop of 12.8% compared to last year. At the other end of the spectrum, Germany is optimistic with an expected increase of 6.7%, for a total of ... 399 euros, well below so that the French plan.
For purchases, internet has increasingly rating To fill the hood Christmas, despite their reduced budget, the French will rely heavily on the Internet when doing their Christmas shopping: 38% of expenditure, against 33% last year, will be conducted online. They look for the best prices and the gifts they will engage in the coming weeks.
Indeed, nearly half of respondents expect to have completed their purchases until December. This means that distributors must be well organized to deal with these peaks. Last year, according to the Deloitte survey, 8% of online orders were not delivered on time!
The only escape from this diet will children According to the audit and consulting firm, the French are looking for new strategies to cope with the austerity they inflict. They want more than ever that their loyalty is rewarded by immediate reductions. Moreover, these are gifts that should suffer the most with restrictions announced spending down 2.7% compared to last year's purchases.
However, it is not pleasant on meals and entertainment even up respectively 2% and 0.2%. But not to do too much pain to those they love, the French arbitrate their spending for children. Theirs in particular where they plan to spend 9% more.