Smith on Consumers & Holiday Spending: WalletHub

Dean of the School of Communication and Professor of Marketing Brent Smith shares his perspective on consumer trends and spending over the holiday season with WalletHub.

Anyone who intends to do holiday shopping should set and respect their budget. There will always be something cool, special, or exciting to buy. Despite the emotions and the incentives to spend a little bit more, set and respect the budget. That may allow someone to splurge on a much-needed modest self-gift in the future.

People are constantly subjected to and seeking promotional information about the latest, greatest, cheapest, most attractive, and most premium products available. With so much awareness of what is available and what others are buying, we can normalize shopping as a routine, or habit, even when we do not have a product-specific need, want, or desire to address.