Is a 'Joy Deficit' Emerging Among Holiday Shoppers, and How Can Retailers Address It?

According to a recent report penned by Retail Dive's Cara Salpini, while shoppers are maintaining spend -- with the help of BNPL and credit -- this holiday season, they are showing signs of fatigue while doing so, and that tiredness may translate to lost consumer trust in the long run.

With Salpini opening by drawing comparisons between Walmart's latest Grinch-themed ad starring Walton Goggins and the contemporary view of the holiday season more broadly -- both "wholesome and consumerist at the same time" -- she noted that shoppers were having a hard time feeling that "Merry Christmas" energy given a lack of funds at hand.

“There’s a real joy deficit for consumers,” Katie Thomas, who leads the Kearney Consumer Institute, said, per Salpini.

With brands leveraging "anxiety-enforcing messaging," consumers are "stressed out, everything’s expensive and you’re getting that told back to you. You’re in the comments on TikTok and everyone’s like, ‘Oh, I can’t even afford my groceries’ … We’re all kind of in that echo chamber of reinforcing that anxiety,” Thomas added.

A number of established data points were then trotted out in support of this thesis: Higher-income shoppers are driving spend as middle- and lower-income consumers show hesitancy and trade down into discount retailers; consumers are signaling a willingness to buy into buy now, pay later and credit card spending to cover their gift-giving; resale is picking up steam as a channel; the gifting of dupe products is on the rise; and "intentionality" and deal-seeking are the buzzwords of today's holiday retail environment.

Experts Weigh In on How To Prevent Consumers From Faltering in their Holiday Spirit (and Spend)

Salpini summoned the combined wisdom of two experts -- Thomas, as well as Anjee Solanki, national director of retail services at Colliers -- to make the case for retailers to avoid any potential missteps when making appeals to wary, easily dispirited customers.

Thomas spoke to the primacy of avoiding playing games with pricing, particularly in terms of the temptation to offer artificial discounts on products. An empathetic tone never goes astray, either.

“The challenge with both this and shrinkflation is: You’re going to see the consumer melt slowly,” Thomas said, indicating that those retailers who do play ill-advised games with consumers could see long-term trust (and reputation) damaged. “It is more sensitive this year, but I don’t think you’ll see it reflected in numbers either," Thomas added.

Both Thomas and Solanki agreed on the proposition of moving toward more heartfelt sentiment, whether through empathetic and tone-aware messaging or emotionally-authentic advertising. And as Salpini noted, this messaging didn't necessarily have to be overly saccharine to be effective.

"Getting emotional doesn’t have to be serious, either. Target, which stirred up many feelings last year with its 'hot Santa' effort, has brought the charismatic Kris K back to its marketing lineup this year, a move the retailer said was driven by shoppers’ desire for more joy this season. An upbeat Starbucks ad shows marker-drawn characters playfully running across coffee cups, while Maybelline actually produced a microdrama Christmas content series," Salpini wrote.

Solanki underscored that, for customers "inundated" by deals and discounts and hard-selling language, efforts which are "thoughtful and sincere" will resonate further -- and that not only marketers, but also front-line retail staff, should be embracing this mindset.

Citing her experience with a Spirit Halloween store she had visited during the fall, one which boasted a haunted house inside, Solaki noted an irrepressible joy in those present.

“The joy in these families — I don’t care if you’re an adult or a child, everyone was engaged in this haunted house,” Solanki said, noting that in-store engagement can drive levity and spark authentic connection between shoppers and retail associates this holiday season.