Consumers are buying nearly twice as many TVs this holiday season as last year, a new survey suggests.
According to a Christmas shopping forecast by America’s Research Group (ARG), 14.4 percent of shoppers have purchased a new TV, compared to 7.5 percent who did so during Holiday 2014.
Of those buying a TV since Cyber Monday, most (43.8 percent) did so at Walmart, followed by Target (12.5 percent) and Best Buy (4.2 percent).
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Video game purchases are also up this season, with 27.5 percent of respondents snagging a new title, the most since 2010. Walmart captured that wave too with 63.3 percent of seasonal gaming sales, up from 50.2 percent last year, the researchers said.
ARG extrapolated its sales forecasts from interviews with 1,000 U.S. adults conducted Dec. 4-6.
Among its other findings:
* nearly a quarter of Americans have completed their holiday shopping, the most in 12 years;
*more Americans are also waiting until Dec. 24 to complete their holiday shopping — also the most in 12 years — with 45.4 percent of the last-minute shoppers in pursuit of a 60 percent-off deal;
*fewer Americans shopped on Cyber Monday (27.8 percent vs. 32.1 percent last year);
*of those shopping on Thanksgiving, 48.4 percent said they spent more than they did the previous year (compared to 34.9 percent in 2014), spurred on by deals; and
*Amazon got the lion’s share of online business, with 51.1 percent shopping the e-tailer this season, followed by Walmart.com at 12.9 percent.
ARG is projecting a slight 0.8 to 1.5 percent decline in holiday retail sales year over year.
