New Year Spending Survey – 2014

Moscow, 4 December 2013 - New Year Spending Survey – 2014 -  Deloitte CIS would like to present the findings of our sixteenth annual international survey of consumer spending over the Christmas and New Year holidays. This is the seventh consecutive year that Russia has participated in the survey. For two weeks in September, we questioned more than 750 participants, living primarily in the six Russian cities with a population of over one million, about their year-end purchasing plans.

Inside the consumer mind-set

Although Russians have experienced economic slow-down in 2013, they still have more optimistic views on the current and expected state of the economy than Europeans: in Russia only 37 percent notice the recession, compared with 50 percent on average in Europe. This optimism also has an effect on spending power, which has increased for 32 percent of Russian respondents in 2013, versus 17 percent in Europe. However, Russians are not expecting the economy to experience high growth rates in 2014: approximately a third of Russians think that the recession will continue throughout 2014. At the same time, despite these expectations, Russians are planning to increase their New-Year budgets in order to enjoy a little holiday spending.

“Russians have felt the economic slow-down and are not expecting a miracle in the following year. This has an effect on their consumer behaviour when shopping for the holidays, making them focus on buying useful gifts and limiting the quantity of unplanned purchases. At the same time, despite the economic slow-down, Russians would like to enjoy their holidays and are therefore willing to increase their holiday budgets,” notes Vladimir Biryukov, Consumer Business and Retail Group Partner, Deloitte CIS.

2013 holiday budget

In 2013 Russian consumers are planning to allocate an average budget of RUB 19,200 (EUR 443) for end-of-year festivities. This is 13 percent more than the previous year, when it was RUB 17,000. Over half of this budget (around RUB 8,600) will be spent on gifts, about RUB 7,500 on food, and approximately RUB 3,100 on entertainment.

Most-wanted and most popular gifts

Cash still takes the lead in the list of most-wanted gifts (49 percent). Men would most like to receive smartphones (46 percent) and tablet PCs (35 percent), whereas women would prefer travel (53 percent) and jewellery or watches (46 percent).

The most popular gifts that Russians are planning to buy are cosmetics (37 percent), chocolates (32 percent) and books (20 percent). Gift cards and cash share fourth place (17 percent). In most European countries, books are the most popular gift during the holiday period.

The average Russian consumer will spend 17 percent of his/her gift budget on him-/herself – the highest proportion among European countries. The share of holiday budget allocated to children has been steadily decreasing over the last three years: in 2013 only one-third of the average gift budget will be spent on children, compared to 43 percent back in 2010.

More useful gifts, less unplanned purchases

With each year Russians are getting closer to the European consumer behaviour model when it comes to buying gifts for the New Year holidays: one-third of Russians (men - 24 percent, women - 39 percent) will focus on buying useful gifts this year and approximately 30 percent of Russians will make less unplanned purchases. This trend was first observed last year and has become more obvious in the current year.

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