Hispanic holiday shoppers: What you need to know

Allison Zeller

Though the rate of growth has recently slowed, Hispanics continue to account for more of the nation’s overall population growth than any other race or ethnicity, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. The report notes that while more than half of the U.S. Hispanic population resides in three states (California, Texas and Florida), this consumer demographic group continues to disperse throughout the country.

These shoppers are not to be overlooked in planning strategy. According to Nielsen, Hispanic buying power reached $1.4 trillion in 2016, and is expected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2021. Consumers between the ages of 18 and 32 account for 40 percent of the Hispanic market, and we’ve been seeing brands make this group of consumers the center of both product and marketing strategies. For example, Mattel recently introduced a special quinceañera Barbie.

View report

View report

We also dug into our data from NRF’s 2017 Holiday Planning Playbook to uncover insights into how Hispanic holiday shoppers approach their path to holiday purchases differently than the average holiday shopper population.

Inspiration: 44 percent of Hispanic shoppers used Facebook for help with gifting inspiration in 2016, compared with 29 percent of average holiday shoppers.

Research: 58 percent of Hispanic shoppers started researching gifts in October or earlier last year.

Purchase: 85 percent of Hispanic holiday shoppers left a store without making a purchase last year because they couldn’t find what they were looking for.

Fulfillment and returns: 82 percent of Hispanic shoppers said their experience returning products last holiday season was easy.

Post-purchase: Nearly three-quarters of Hispanic holiday shoppers typically write a review when they’re satisfied.