Nearly Half of Adults Plan to Spend Less on Holiday Shopping This Year
In addition to the 45% of adults who plan to scale back their holiday budgets this year, an additional four in ten (42%) report that they intend to spend about the same amount as they did last year on holiday shopping, while just 11% plan to spend more.
- Women are more likely than men to say that they are going to be cutting back their holiday shopping budgets (49% vs. 39%), as are adults ages 35 and older compared to younger adults (49% vs. 35%).
Perhaps to make their shrinking holiday budgets go farther this holiday season, when planning for this holiday shopping season, half of consumers (49%) find deals throughout the year and an additional 27% keep their eye on online specials and daily deals, while just 18% wait until Black Friday or Cyber Monday to start their shopping. Fourteen percent were unsure.
Another strategy some consumers are using to get the most bang for their buck when it comes to their holiday shopping is spending time looking for the best possible prices. While many adults (45%) report to spend less than an hour researching the best prices for each of their holiday purchases, most adults (51%) actually report to spend at least an hour doing so - including 38% who say that they spend one to three hours, and 14% who report spending over three hours.
In general, consumers utilize a variety of types of coupons, but the most commonly used are those from newspapers or magazines, with 50% of adults saying that they have taken advantage of these savings opportunities in the past 30 days. Nearly as many (47%) say that they have used a loyalty card or in-store promotions in the past month, though fewer have used printable coupons (28%), daily deals such as Groupon (27%), or online coupon codes (25%). One in ten (11%) say that they have taken advantage of some other kind of savings opportunity, while 15% have not utilized any of these promotions.
However, not all are taking advantage of online coupons available on sites such as Offers.com. Less than half (48%) report that they are likely to look for online coupons or coupon codes before making a holiday purchase, while 51% say that they are unlikely to do so.
- A greater proportion of women than men say that they are likely to look for online coupons or coupon codes before making a purchase this holiday shopping season (52% vs. 43%). Adults under 55 are also more likely than those who are older to say this (53% vs. 37%). Parents are also more likely to hunt for these deals than are adults without children under 18 (58% vs. 43%).
Online vs. In-Store Shopping
If the merchandise and deals were the same, seven in ten adults (69%) report that they would prefer to shop in retail stores, while just 26% would opt for shopping online. Four percent have no preference and 1% were unsure. However, if they could find better deals online this holiday season, a greater proportion (47%) say that they would prefer to do their shopping online. However, as many (46%) say that they would go into retail stores, meaning that they would forgo the online deals in order to shop in person. One in twenty (5%) have no preference between the two and 2% are unsure.
- Over half of adults under 55 (54%) would shop online if that's where they could find better holiday deals compared to just 35% of adults 55 and over.
When it comes to frequency of online shopping, 11% report to make an online purchase at least once a week, and another 20% do so on a monthly basis. However, four in ten (38%) say they shop online only a few times a year, and a third (31%) never shop online.
Among those who do shop online, 16% say that they always look for a coupon or coupon code to make their shopping dollar go farther, and an additional 24% do so most of the time. However, a majority of online shoppers are overlooking opportunities to save, looking for online coupons only once in a while (37%) or never (23%).
- Women (20% vs. 11% of men) and parents with children under 18 (21% vs. 13% of those without children under 18) are most likely to say that they always look for coupons when shopping online.
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted September 8-13, 2011. For the survey, a nationally representative sample of 1,001 randomly-selected adults aged 18 and over residing in the U.S. was interviewed via Ipsos' U.S. Telephone Express omnibus. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate within 1773.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire population of adults in the U.S. been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/gender composition reflects that of the actual U.S. population according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
For more information please contact: Julio C Franco Senior Research Manager Ipsos Public Affairs New York, NY 646-313-6117 [email protected]
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