Summer Is The Season Of Spending

This past weekend, the City of Toronto experienced a sweltering dose of summer. It was hot! Not that we’re complaining. We’ve made it pretty clear on the Synergy Merchant Services Blog that we’re pretty fond of summer. We’ve also made it clear that business owners across Canada should love summer too.

Summer is a time when people love to go outside, have fun with their family and friends and naturally…spend money. In previous blogs, we’ve encouraged entrepreneurs to throw events that would help to lure more customers in to their stores. There’s no time like summer to party it up with your customers to help develop strong relationships with them.

This past weekend, Alison Griffiths confirmed this belief in an article posted on Moneyville.ca. She writes that summer brings out the big spenders in the majority of Canadians. In fact, a recent TD Canada Trust Summer Spending Survey found that consumers practically overdo it during the summer season.

Among some of the statistics that came out of the survey was that 67 percent of Ontarians spend more money during the summer simply because they’re happier. It has been said that the end of the year holiday season is the one “to be merry” in. But you can’t argue that summer is the season of fun!

The survey confirms this by noting that 74 percent of people are more relaxed in the summer…and so are their spending and saving habits. For example, 51 percent of those who took the survey admit to letting their bill payments slip. Of course, this isn’t something we recommend!

Griffiths also reveals that “40 percent forget about budgeting, 38 percent forget about saving, 63 percent eat out and drink more with friends, 62 percent take more holidays in the summer (and) 11 percent are more likely to book off work even if they feel fine.” Because of this, she goes so far as suggesting that we abolish summer to help our finances!

Now while we definitely don’t support the “abolish summer” stance, we do agree that smart financial planning is important for both consumers and business owners alike. With that being said, business owners should know that this is definitely the time of year to take advantage of the moods that people are in. And people like to spend during the summer!