US households plan to spend an average of $576 on gifts this holiday season, up from $538 last year, business research group The Conference Board said late Thursday.

Should you care? Well, yes, because the fact is that though shoppers expect to spend more, they also expect to get more for their money – a lot more.

Those consumers, it seems, are stuck even further than ever in the never-pay-full-price mindset.

More than three out of every five holiday shoppers say they expect at least a quarter of their purchases to be on sale or discounted.

“While this season is shaping up to surpass last year’s, consumers are still unwilling to pay full price for gifts. The majority say they will be on the lookout for bargains and incentives,” said Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board.

The survey also gave us further confirmation that this will be an online Christmas. Nearly three-quarters of respondents say they expect to purchase at least some of their holiday gifts online, while more than one out of four say more than half of their gifts will be purchased online.

The survey of holiday gift spending intentions, based on a probability-design random sample, was conducted for The Conference Board by Nielsen last month.