National Survey Reveals that Finding the Right Gift Causes More Stress for Holiday Shoppers than Finding the Right Price, Despite Economic Downturn
ChoiceStream Holiday Survey Finds that Most Consumers will be Shopping Online as They Look for Guidance with Finding the Best Gift
Cambridge, Mass. — November 20, 2008 — ChoiceStream, a leading provider of personalization services for e-retail, entertainment, TV and mobile brands, today announced the availability of its 2008 Holiday Survey. According to the survey, more than twice as many shoppers (41 percent) are stressed by finding the right gift to buy than getting the best price this holiday season (16 percent). The survey also found that 75 percent of respondents will do at least some of their holiday shopping online and that the top reason consumers will go online is convenience, not price. (61 percent of respondents indicated they shop online because it’s more convenient for them; only 25 percent indicated that finding the best price is a top reason for shopping online.) In addition, 71 percent of online shoppers indicated that they will rely on or take into consideration recommendations when looking for gifts this season.
“Although the current economic climate is predicted to curb consumer spending this holiday season, we were surprised to find that shoppers are still more concerned with shopping convenience and finding the right gift than they are with getting the best price,” said Toffer Winslow, EVP of Sales and Marketing at ChoiceStream. “We believe that this presents retailers with a unique opportunity to earn consumers’ limited shopping dollars by improving the online customer experience instead of focusing on discounts and margin-eroding promotions. Consumers have signaled their desire for useful shopping guidance and recommendations, and the retailers that provide it will have a distinct edge.”
The survey also found that more than 70 percent of respondents indicated that they purchased from 4 or fewer online retail sites while holiday shopping last year and only 23 percent indicated they will shop at more online retail sites this holiday period. Meanwhile, nearly 80 percent of respondents indicated that they will spend less than one hour on each of their preferred online shopping destinations during the upcoming holiday period.
“The fact that consumers appear to be shopping at a small number of online retailers makes it even more important for retailers to lock in loyalty with good service and a quality customer experience,” said Winslow. “In addition, the fact that shoppers do not spend a lot of time ‘window shopping’ on their preferred online shopping destinations means that retailers must engage shoppers with relevant products upfront to increase conversions and average order size during these fairly short visits.”
To download a full research brief of the holiday survey and learn more about how brands and retailers can use personalization services to increase revenue while improving a consumers’ online experience; please visit the ChoiceStream Web site at www.choicestream.com.
About ChoiceStream, Inc.
ChoiceStream is the premier personalization service provider for the world’s largest e-retail, entertainment, TV and mobile brands, including Overstock.com, Comcast, Borders, Blockbuster, AT&T, and Yahoo!, Recently named the company with the “deepest experience” and the “largest and longest-standing of the ‘pure-play’ personalization engines” by a leading independent research firm, ChoiceStream enables customers to put the right content and products in front of the right people at the right time to maximize the value of every interaction with consumers.
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