Holiday Shopping 2023: Robust Surge in Online Purchases Among Latinos

Six out of every ten Latinos residing in the United States showed preference for online purchasing over physical stores, an increase of 20 percentage points from the previous year, according to a survey released at the onset of the 2023 Holiday Shopping Season.

This part of the year, which is considered to begin with Thanksgiving and peak at Christmas, could represent a significant raise in e-commerce sales, especially in clothing.

The study, published by Consolidated Credit, shows that Hispanics have emphasized their inclination toward clothing, constituting 45.5% of their preferred online purchases, closely followed by home products at 42.4%. In contrast, the rest of consumers indicated a preference over home products (35.47%), while clothing obtained 24.31%.

Considering that the Latino percentage of the total United States population was 18.7% in 2020, according to the 2020 Census, the increase in online shopping by members of this demographic will likely have an impact in this holiday shopping season at a national level.

Latino Holiday Shopping Trends in 2023

Consolidated Credit, a nonprofit organization that provides credit counseling, financial education, and debt management programs, asked more than 1,000 people in the United States about their online shopping habits.

"The 2023 Online Shopping Survey results show a strong preference for online shopping among the Hispanic community. An impressive 63.9% of Latino respondents stated that they prefer to shop online rather than visit physical stores", the study said.

The release compares to last year's survey, which showed that four out of every 10 Latinos said they preferred online shopping. "There is no doubt that Latinos are losing their fear of shopping online more and more each year and feel more comfortable purchasing products from the comfort of their homes," the report said.

The frequency of online shopping is also now much higher among Hispanics, with 75.7% making between 1 and 5 online purchases per month. 55.7% of non-Hispanic respondents said they make online purchases with the same frequency.

The survey also showed that 43.6% of consumers plan to spend between $100 and $500 on online shopping.

Consolidated Credit stated that 48.08% of both Hispanic and non-Hispanic respondents prefer to use credit cards as their primary method of payment for online purchases.

However, while most English speakers have between $1,000 and $5,000 in credit card debt (34.9%), Spanish speakers have twice as much, with 29.1% reporting balances between $5,000 and $10,000.

U.S. retailers are gearing up for "Black Friday," held the day after Thanksgiving and increasingly copied in Europe and beyond. This year's markdowns are expected to be especially deep, reflecting the pressure stores feel to lure in a US consumer jaded by still-high inflation and the upheaval of the pandemic years.

Still, forecasters expect heavy consumer traffic. The National Retail Federation (NRF) predicts more than 182 million consumers will shop in stores and online over the shopping weekend.