Shoppers to spend less this holiday season, willing to pay more for Canadian goods: PwC

A new PwC Canada report reveals Canadians plan to spend less during this year's holiday season compared to last year. However, over half of the surveyed individuals express willingness to pay more for Canadian-made products over imported alternatives. The survey found that 54% of respondents would choose a more expensive Canadian product over an imported equivalent, an increase from 49% last year.

This shift in consumer behavior comes as PwC's holiday outlook report indicates that Canadians anticipate spending an average of $1,487 during this holiday season, a decrease of 11% from the previous year. The survey was conducted in early July, prior to the recent intensification of trade tensions with the United States, which may have caused the findings to underrepresent current Canadian sentiments.

Adam Boutros, a partner and national consumer markets leader at PwC Canada, attributes the shift in consumer behavior to Canadians' growing preference to allocate their spending within the country. The report was based on an online survey of 1,016 respondents between July 30 and August 6. The Canadian Research Insights Council, a professional organization that sets standards for polling, notes that online surveys cannot have a margin of error due to their non-random population sampling.