72% of Consumers Splurge On Themselves – But What Do They Buy?

By Jennifer Sikora, vice president of Marketing, CivicScience

Consumers do not seem hesitant to splurge on themselves, particularly since data shows that overall U.S. consumer confidence in personal finances is higher now than one year ago. The majority of U.S. consumers take opportunities to splurge – but their choices on what that splurge involves vary widely.

In a recent consumer research study conducted by CivicScience, the data show that 72% of 16,857 consumers polled admit that they splurge on themselves. Respondents were asked to pick from a range of options – both goods and services – to indicate their go-to choice when they make a splurge purchase. A clothing shopping spree is the highest-ranking choice overall among those who splurge, but there is a lot more to learn about those who select any of the splurge options.

The first table below highlights attributes of those respondents who are more likely to select any of the “tangible” products – luxury designer products, expensive liquor, jewelry, and clothing shopping sprees – over other splurge choices:  

This second table highlights attributes of those respondents who are more likely to select any of the services options – physical pampering, expensive meals, event tickets – over other splurge choices: 

Here are some interesting summary points we can find in this data:

• Men are much more likely to splurge on food, liquor, and events, while women dominate the other categories – particularly when it comes to physical pampering.
• Consumers between the ages of 35 and 44 seem to be the “sweet spot” among those more likely to splurge on every category except for clothing shopping sprees and jewelry. Older consumers are more likely to favor jewelry indulgences, while younger consumers tend to favor clothes purchases.
• Parents gravitate toward splurging on physical pampering as well as expensive food and liquor.
• Those who characterize themselves as more freely parting with money (“spendthrifts”) have little difficulty spending on nearly every category – except on expensive meals, where the self-reported “tightwads” index highest. Perhaps those meals are perceived as more practical, or they are enjoyed as special occasions shared with others, such as anniversaries or birthdays.
• Those who are more likely to splurge on expensive liquor are 2X more likely to not use Facebook than to be an active Facebook user. Data shows that men are much less likely than women to actively use Facebook, so this correlation makes sense since men favor the liquor splurge.

What about those 28% of consumers who do not splurge on themselves? They are 39% more likely to be men; make under $50,000 per year; be an older adult, aged 45+ years;  be a grandparent (they are 48% more likely not to splurge than parents and 126% more likely than non-parents); live in a rural area; and never or almost never exercise. They are also more likely to also characterize them self as a tightwad vs. more freely parting with their money. Perhaps among this segment, splurging may always be seen as an expensive activity.

From the data we found, people who do splurge in general say they are happier than those who don’t splurge. Hopefully those who do not take the opportunity to splurge on themselves can find more economical ways to treat themselves to something nice, as happiness is certainly worth it.

About the CivicScience Methodology:

CivicScience collects real-time consumer research data via polling applications that run on hundreds of U.S. publisher websites, cycling through thousands of active questions on any given day. CivicScience builds deep psychographic profiles of these anonymous respondents over time, providing valuable consumer sentiment data to the decision makers who care. The CivicScience methodology has been scientifically validated by a team of academic leaders and independent research firms. CivicScience currently has more than 27 million anonymous consumer profiles and 600 million responses stored, growing daily. For this report, CivicScience analyzed the data collected from 16,857 U.S.-based adults, weighted for U.S. census representativeness for gender and age (18 years and older), from January 22, 2014 to September 10, 2014.

Click here for more information from CivicScience.

About the Author:

Jennifer Sikora currently serves as vice president of Marketing at CivicScience. She has over 17 years of technology solution marketing experience, serving industries spanning retail and hospitality, manufacturing and supply chain, business and finance, and education. She is frequent guest columnist for many business and trade journals, and holds a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies/journalism from the University of Pittsburgh.