Barbie teams with old favorites on top 10 holiday toys list

More than 6500 consumers were polled on the hot toy that they planned to purchase for children with a fill-in-the-blank question to ensure the highest accuracy. The survey found that most consumers buying gifts for girls will be on the lookout for Barbie merchandise, though other popular toys for girls will include Bratz merchandise, Leap Frog, Dora the Explorer and Care Bears. Boys’ results were more varied, with many gift-givers scouting for cars and trucks and others searching for Game Boys, PlayStations, Hot Wheels, and Hulk. (See a complete list of the Top 10 Toys below.)

Many retailers are expecting high demand for toys and are recommending that people shop early, said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. The best suggestion for parents is to scoop up popular toys when they see them because there’s no guarantee that the hottest items will last through the holidays.

While 45.4 percent of adults will be shopping for toys this holiday, apparel will be the most sought-after category, with 62.2 percent of consumers planning to purchase clothing or clothing accessories as gifts this season. Books, CDs, and DVDs were a close second at 60.8 percent, followed by gift cards/gift certificates (50.4%) and personal care or beauty items (25.2%).

Though many experts suggest shopping early this year, most consumers have barely started. As of November 12, nearly two-thirds of consumers (64.9%) had finished less than ten percent of their holiday shopping, with an additional 11.5 percent less than a quarter of the way done. However, one consumer out of 15 (6.7%) is almost totally finished with their holiday shopping (more than 75% complete).

Retailers are driving consumers to the stores with great promotions and prices, said Phil Rist, Vice President of Strategy for BIGresearch. Consumers who have been casually looking have started to buy because the sales are just too good to pass up.

The survey also found that consumers plan to shop sensibly this year, with 30.7 percent of consumers using check/debit cards for gift purchases this season. Other methods included cash (26.9%), credit cards (30.1%) and personal checks (12.3%).

NRF continues to project that holiday sales will increase 5.7 percent this year to $217.4 billion, which would be the largest increase since 1999.

About the Survey

The NRF 2003 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey was designed to gauge consumer behaviour and shopping trends related to the winter holidays. The survey, which polled 6,551 consumers, was conducted for NRF by BIGresearch from November 6-12, 2003. The consumer poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.0 percent.

BIGresearch is a consumer market intelligence firm that provides unique consumer insights that are gathered online utilizing very large sample sizes. BIGresearch’s syndicated Consumer Intentions and Actions survey monitors the pulse of more than 7,000 consumers each month to empower its clients with unique insights for identifying opportunities in a fragmented and changing marketplace.

The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalogue, Internet and independent stores as well as the industry's key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.4 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 20 million employees about one in five American workers and 2002 sales of $3.6 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 states, national and international retail associations. www.nrf.com

Due to the tremendous rise in gift card spending, NRF and BIGresearch will be releasing their first-ever Gift Card Survey this month.

Top 10 Holiday Toys for Girls
(in order of most popular)

• Barbie
• Bratz
• Leap Frog
• Dora the Explorer
• Care Bears
• Elmo
• Polly Pocket
• Game Boy
• My Little Pony
• American Girl

• Cars/Trucks
• Game Boy related
• Video Games
• Hot Wheels
• PlayStation related
• Hulk
• Yu-Gi-Oh
• Leap Frog
• Xbox
• Lego