Now that it is finally November, more businesses and shoppers are putting the focus on their typical holiday shopping plans. A survey from PriceGrabber is showing results as to where shoppers are going to be shopping for gifts this year. In its second year, the survey asks shoppers to select all of the ways they plan to shop and a staggering 90 percent said they would shop online, which is up 1 percent from last year. More surprisingly, the number of shoppers that plan to shop at brick and mortar businesses dropped almost 20 percent from 2010 to 48 percent for 2011.
The survey was accessed by more than 2,300 online shoppers in the United States and went from September 19th to October 17th. The number of shoppers that said they plan to shop online from a mobile device jumped up to 13 percent from 9 percent last year. For 2011, the survey showed that over 63 percent of shoppers purchase online, 33 percent make a purchase at a brick and mortar and 4 percent from mobile devices. Comparing to the numbers from 2010, the percentage went up in online and mobile purchase categories, with the largest jump in online purchases.
If you try and think about the main reason that someone would shop online compared to a local brick and mortar store, you would immediately think about the crabby shoppers and long lines at the stores. Shopping online is so easy these days, can be done very quickly and will no doubt be less stressful then heading out to your local mall to face the mobs. Over 78 percent of those surveyed said the crowds were the number one reason and 76 percent said free shipping online is part of the reason they shop online and 75 percent said they like the price comparison options online.
Local deal websites are also going to be quite popular this holiday season and the survey found that 59 percent of shoppers plan to use the local deal sites and that 56 percent of those comparing prices will be doing so in the “Shopping” category. If you are looking for some of the best deals online and locally, don’t forget that you can use websites like Shopping.com and PriceGrabber.com to find the best prices before you do your shopping.
