A new report form Nielsen Online examines the reasons shoppers turn to the Internet during the holiday season.
Out of about 1,000 shoppers, 81 percent said that the ability to shop anytime was the reason they chose to shop online during the holiday season. Seventy-seven percent said that saving time was their reason to shop online, followed by 61 percent who liked the ability to comparison shop and 56 percent who said it was easy to find items they were looking for online.
A small number of respondents, 46 percent cited low prices as a reason to shop online instead of in a store and 24 percent said low shipping costs were why they made purchases online.
“Coming into the holiday season, retailers are keenly focused on promotions, which certainly have the ability to move the needle in the short term,” said Ken Cassar, vice president, industry solutions analytics, Nielsen Online.
“In the long run, however, convenience keeps people coming back to the Internet during the holiday season. It’s available whenever consumers are ready to shop, offers a wide selection, and obviates the need to fight the crowds at the mall.”
Thirty-five percent of respondents indicated that they will spend between 25 and 50 percent of their holiday budget shopping online, while thirty-three percent expect to spend less than 25 percent of their overall holiday budget online.
“The fact that consumers expect to allocate the same share of what may be a shrinking overall holiday budget to the Web, suggests that online sales growth may not live up to the 20 percent annual growth rates we have seen in years past,” said Cassar.
