RetailNext Voter Survey: Election 2016 Outcome Unlikely to Affect Holiday Shopping

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --  RetailNext Inc., the worldwide expert and market leader in IoT retail analytics for optimizing shopper experiences at brick-and-mortar retail stores, today announced a survey of American voters found the vast majority will not let the outcome of Election 2016 affect their planned spending this coming holiday season. The nationally projectable survey of over 2,000 Americans age 18+ was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of RetailNext, and uncovered several key insights into Americans' shopping intentions entering the holidays, including:

• A strong majority of Americans - 90 percent - plan to buy gifts for this upcoming holiday season.
• Among those who plan to buy gifts, a majority of shoppers say the results of the Presidential election will not affect their spending this holiday season.
  • Seventy percent say that if Donald Trump is elected it will not affect their spending.
  • Sixty-eight percent say that if Hillary Clinton is elected it will not affect their spending.
• Among those who plan to buy gifts this holiday season, 23 percent will spend less on holiday shopping if Donald Trump is elected President.
• Among those who plan to buy gifts this holiday season, 21 percent will spend less on holiday shopping if Hillary Clinton is elected.

The survey also revealed insights into shoppers' ever-changing holiday shopping journeys, namely:

• Among those planning to buy gifts this holiday season, more shoppers plan to buy gifts online (53 percent) than in-store (45 percent).
• Forty-two percent of Americans say Black Friday is the major holiday shopping day when they feel they can get the best deal, whereas 29 percent think Cyber Monday is when they can get the best deal.

"There will be slight degrees of variability in store visits and retail performance early in November due to the election," said Shelley E. Kohan, vice president of retail consulting at RetailNext, "but any residual angst from Election 2016 will likely be well over by Thanksgiving. As this holiday season has two additional shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, an overlapping of the beginning of Hanukkah with Christmas Eve, and a bevy of generally positive economic indicators, the retail industry should close the year relatively strong."

"Shoppers should look for stores to emphasize initiatives around the shopping experience, easing the pain points experienced in shopping journeys," added Kohan. "In addition to ensuring product availability, price matching and pricing transparency has risen to the forefront, along with additional training to empower sales associates to close the knowledge gap that exists when shoppers show up at the store knowing more about the brand and its products and services than associates do."

About RetailNext

The first retail vertical IoT platform to bring e-commerce style shopper analytics to brick-and-mortar stores, brands and malls, RetailNext is a pioneer in focusing entirely on optimizing the shopper experience. Through its centralized SaaS platform, RetailNext automatically collects and analyzes shopper behavior data, providing retailers with insight to improve the shopper experience real time.

More than 300 retailers in over 60 countries have adopted RetailNext's analytics software and retail expertise to better understand the shopper journey in order to increase same-store sales, reduce theft and eliminate unnecessary costs. RetailNext is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. Learn more at www.retailnext.net.

Polling Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of RetailNext from July 13-15, 2016 among over 2,000 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, please contact [email protected].

RetailNext Inc. and RetailNext are trademarks of RetailNext Inc. in the United States.

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SOURCE RetailNext

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