As the holidays quickly approach, consumers are already opening their wallets at unprecedented levels. A record 200.4 million people scoured stores and websites from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, according to the National Retail Federation, leading the organization to predict record holiday spending up 3% to 4% vs. last year.

With many people watching to see if the strong spending growth continues through the end of the year, softer HundredX datapoints for November indicate that growth may moderate a bit and buyers are starting to feel some pricing fatigue, particularly for digital services. 

Analyzing millions of pieces of customer feedback from July 2021 across 80+ industries and 3,000+ companies, we find:

• HundredX’s Net Purchase Intent¹,² Index fell 1% over the past month, indicating customers expect to keep spending but may grow that spend less in the coming months. We will look to the December datapoint to see if a softening trend may be emerging.
• Over the past month, customers’ aggregate perception of prices across the economy fell by about 1.5%, putting it at its lowest level since May and showing inflation’s stickiness. Perception improved from a trough in summer 2022 to a recent peak in July 2023, but has fallen 3 of 4 months since then. 
• Changes in HundredX’s Price favorability³ index are typically inversely correlated with movement in the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price levels (i.e. inflation) reported by the US government. 
• Customers feel increasingly disenchanted with the prices of digital goods and services. Price favorability fell 4% - 6% over the past three months for video games, video streaming, business software, and cable and internet providers – more than any other industries. The discontent reflects backlash against game and software developers increasingly turning to subscriptions, and the rising costs of video streaming services. Usage Intent² (video streaming, business software) and Purchase Intent (video games) fell 1% - 3% over the past three months.