Nielsen has conducted its annual holiday sales survey and forecast, and the results are in.

In addition to learning the expectations for holiday spending and growth, the global information site also shared that multicultural consumers will be standing behind the shopping carts this holiday season, driving holiday sales.

The 55 million Hispanics in the U.S. and millions of other multicultural shoppers are expected to impact larger seasonal trends this year, propelling holiday shopping growth over the month of December. Forty-three percent of multicultural households will account for extra spending this holiday season despite only 10 percent of the population indicating that they wanted to spend more this year than they did last year.

Latino/Hispanic shoppers make up 13 percent of the 43 percent of the multicultural households expected to spend additional money this season (compared to 17 percent African American and 13 percent Asian American). The anticipated spending is significant, as a third of all multicultural consumers expect to spend an average of $250-$500 and over 20 percent expect to spend an average of $500-$1,000 this season, on gifts alone. Those numbers are similar among Hispanics: 30 percent expect to spend $250-$500 and 22 percent expect to spend $500-$1,000.

Multi-ethnic consumers not only expect to spend more this holiday season, but these avid shoppers expect to wait longer to spend money -- meaning, two weeks before Christmas, marketers and brands still have time to reach these shoppers.

So, what will Hispanics spend more money on this buying season? It seems that Hispanics' plans for additional spending this holiday season matches the general market, except that Hispanics plan to spend slightly more.

Gift cards (15 percent for Hispanics vs 12 percent for general market), electronics (13 percent vs 10 percent) and toys (13 percent vs 10 percent) top the list for additional spending. Compare that to African Americans, who plan to spend an additional 17 percent on both electronics and food this year, followed by 15 percent more on apparel. And Asian Americans shoppers look to spend an additional 14 percent more than last year on food, followed by 13 percent more on electronics and 12 percent more on apparel.

Now that we know what Hispanics are spending extra dollars on this holiday season, where are they shopping for gifts? According to report findings, 24 percent of Hispanics and Asian-Americans, and 20 percent of African-Americans, plan to turn to the internet for holiday purchases -- many doing so on their mobile devices. Thirteen percent of Hispanics will visit "big box" mass merchandisers, such as Target or Walmart for purchases. And 11 percent will visit toy stores for gifting purposes. According to another report by Nielsen, men will do a great deal of purchasing in-store this holiday season, while women will tune in to deals while on their computers.

Seasonal spending has been edged forward by multicultural dollars for quite some time, but recent years have shown the growth that these consumers offer to broader markets, retailers and manufacturers with their spending. Their purchases during the holiday season reflects a larger consumer landscape, and forecasts their ability to build and break brands.

The Neilsen report was issued in mid-November, prior to revenue loss during the Black Friday protests that followed failures to indict the police officers involved in the shooting death of unarmed black teen Michael Brown and the choking death of unarmed black man Eric Garner. The #NotOneDime and #BoycottBlackFriday movements on Twitter heavily contributed to a nationwide year-over-year sales drop of 11 percent for the Black Friday weekend, which is a considerable dip.

Nonetheless, a great deal of revenue will likely be gained from multicultural consumers throughout the holiday season.

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