How many Americans are still doing holiday shopping?

Data show more Americans are already done at this time than last year

Charleston, S.C. - New data from America's Research Group and Inmar say nearly half of Americans have finished their holiday shopping, with the hold-outs looking for a few more last-minute deals.

The Christmas & Holiday Shopping Forecast survey found that 48.3% of consumers are 90%, or all done, with their shopping in comparison to the 45.2%. More consumers who are parents say they have finished shopping for their children, with 60.2% all done - compared to 52.6% this time last year.

Of those consumers who haven't finished shopping, 22.2% (vs. 15.9% last year) say it's because they're not getting the really big discounts; and they are planning to wait until the last three days of holiday sales before Christmas to finish up their shopping.

Suprisingly, online Christmas shopping has gone down somewhat so far in 2013, according to the study, with 40.1% buying gifts online percent this year, compared to 41.9% last year. Gift card purchases are also down from 54.1% to 44.8% this year. More consumers (27.3%) are also using credit cards to pay for their purchases, particularly during the Christmas shopping season, which is up from 19.5% last year.

Although consumers still have items to check off their holiday gift lists, November retail sales numbers reveal that despite the shorter holiday season, retailers are still on track to meet The National Retail Federation's holiday sales forecast of 3.9 percent growth