According to the website IPMARK.com, the January sales campaign traditionally starts after Epiphany, on 7 January, a discount period that ends between March and April. In the current context of uncertainty and high prices, Spanish citizens plan to spend an average of 94.38 euros, 2% less than last year’s campaign (96.33 euros).
As reported by the financial comparator Banqmi, the price increase marks a lower budget than in 2022, although “many expect to find greater discounts in sales”. The company points out that, despite the lower budget, “the outlook is not so bad and this Christmas campaign is being more positive than expected”.
This is what Spaniards spend during the sales
Although the average is 94.38 euros, seven regions will exceed 100 euros on average, such as the Basque Country (110.23 euros per person average budget), La Rioja (106.76 euros), the Community of Valencia (103.34 euros), Navarre (102.90 euros), Cantabria (101.31 euros), the Community of Madrid (100.20) and Asturias (100.10 euros). Others will exceed 80 euros, such as Galicia (81.01 euros), the Canary Islands (82.34 euros) and Castilla y León (85.34 euros).
These differences may be due to the “availability of new establishments with low prices, the average age of consumers or a greater tradition of shopping in the sales”. The people of La Rioja expect to spend up to 5.42 euros more, followed by the Valencians (3.89 euros more on average).
43.66% will spend the same
Will you spend more or less than last year? The preferred answer is ‘I will spend the same’ which increases two percentage points compared to last year (from 40.87% who chose this option in 2022, this year 43.66% of respondents choose it). The option ‘I will spend more’ falls 1.10 points (from 13.62% of the votes on average to 12.52%) and ‘I will spend less’ also falls 1.70 points, from 45.51% in 2022 to 43.81%.
There is less budget, but Spaniards want to continue buying and have more expectations of being able to find “bargains”. Banqmi warns that this year “if we want to spend the same, we have to be aware that we will buy fewer things because prices have risen”.
How will they shop? According to 37.1% of those surveyed by Banqmi, they say they will finance their sales purchases with a credit card. Among the other options for paying for purchases are paying with money saved, which falls slightly compared to 2022 (from 17.44% to 17%) and paying with money received as a Christmas present, which also falls slightly: from 18.90% a year ago to 18.43% today.
By regions, those who will most use credit cards to finance their purchases are the people of Murcia (45.24% indicate it as their main method of payment) and Extremadura (45.15%); those who most use savings to pay for their sales purchases are the people of Valencia (23.33%) and Ceuta (22.11%).