The 3rd Annual Consumer Shopping Habits Survey

We unveiled the results of our 3rd annual Consumer Shopping Habits Survey today, just in time for you to check out the white paper and see the how consumers will be shopping this holiday season.  

A few key findings include:

• 58 percent of those surveyed plan to purchase their gifts online this year, besting brick-and-mortar stores by nearly 20 points.
• The economy doesn’t seem to be as big of a factor as some may believe for the consumers we surveyed: 41 percent said that their shopping habits were unaffected by the state of the economy, and 43 percent think the economy is bouncing back.
• When browsing for a gift idea, 59 percent of those surveyed started on search engines, followed by marketplaces at 28 percent. Only 10 percent started directly at a retailer’s webstore.
• Consumers are not as retail-name conscious as one may expect: 67 percent said they would purchase an identical product from an unknown store if the store offered a better value.
• When asked what promotion enticed shoppers to purchase, “best price” was most popular, followed closely by “free shipping,” and then “trusted seller status.”
• Reviews are exceedingly important as 92 percent of consumers said they read product reviews. Of that 92 percent, 46 percent were influenced to purchase based upon the reviews, and 43 percent were deterred from purchasing. The other 3 percent said their decision was unaffected by the reviews.
• When asked what makes a webstore trustworthy, consumers overwhelmingly listed the following three answers, in ranking order: security verification, reviews and webstore aesthetic.

Complete survey results are available in the free white paper called “Through the Eyes of the Consumer,” which can be downloaded here: www.channeladvisor.com/consumersurvey.

Let us know your thoughts on the survey--or questions you'd like to see included in next year's survey--in the comments section.