PriceGrabber survey: Consumers plan to check off the majority of their holiday shopping lists in December

Dec. 12, 2012 – With a record 247 million shoppers visiting stores and websites over the Thanksgiving weekend, there are still a significant number of December shoppers this year. Leading shopping site PriceGrabber.com just released results from its fourth winter holiday shopping survey, revealing that 78 percent of consumers are still in the market to complete their holiday shopping in December. More specifically, 45 percent stated that they are prepared to conduct most of their shopping this month, 33 percent took advantage of Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals in November but said they would conduct a majority of their shopping in December and 22 percent indicated they will not shop for gifts this month. Conducted from Nov. 6 to Nov. 28, 2012, the survey includes responses from 2,541 U.S. online shopping consumers.

When the consumers who indicated that they will do most of their shopping this month were asked to select all of the reasons why, 48 percent said they anticipate deep discounts in December, 28 percent indicated they procrastinate and wait until the last minute to shop and 25 percent noted that holiday advertisements in December offer them great gift ideas. Nineteen percent indicated they conduct most of their shopping in December because they like to take advantage of Free Shipping Day on December 17th and another 19 percent said they are busy and only able to shop in December.

“Thanksgiving weekend was a huge win for retailers with strong sales, and our survey data shows that consumers are still planning to shop and spend money throughout December, which indicates a positive overall holiday shopping season,” said Rojeh Avanesian, vice president of marketing and analytics of PriceGrabber.com.

Consumers are continuing to look for deals, discounts and free shipping this holiday season to save money on gifts. According to PriceGrabber survey results, 59 percent of shoppers plan to take advantage of Free Shipping Day on December 17th to order online and have their gifts delivered in time for Christmas, and 48 percent plan to shop on Super Saturday, December 22nd to take advantage of one-day sales.

The term “showrooming” – when a customer visits a brick and mortar store to touch and feel a product and then goes online to purchase the product at a lower price – has been an increasingly popular topic and trend this holiday season. When PriceGrabber survey respondents were asked if they plan to inspect merchandise in a physical retail store and later purchase it online for less money this holiday season, 52 percent responded positively.

(RELATED: RM Guest Blog – Learning to Love Showroomers)

When the respondents planning to “showroom,” were asked to select all of the reasons why they planned to do so, 53 percent said because they like to touch and feel the product first and then find the best price online, 40 percent indicated they test the product to see if they like it and then go online to take advantage of free shipping deals and coupons, and 40 percent noted that they are trying to save money on holiday gifts this year and always search for the best price. Thirty-nine percent of shoppers indicated they like to browse first and buy later and 27 percent said they like to make side-by-side comparisons before making gift decisions.