Most Online Holiday Gift Buying Will Be at E-Stores, Not Real Stores Top Gift Web Sites Are All Strictly Virtual
WESTPORT, Conn., Sept. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- It's virtually amazing, but e-stores, not real-store Web sites, will be the beneficiaries of this season's online holiday shopping bonanza, according to Greenfield Online's holiday shopping study of nearly 5,000 Americans with Internet access.
Seventy percent of consumers on the Internet plan to do some or all of their holiday shopping online. But when surfing for gifts hits high gear in October, November and December, nary a major department store nor big-name catalog retailer is likely to be among the top online destinations for holiday e-commerce.
The top Web sites online gift buyers say they plan to visit are virtual businesses only, with no physical store presence. The top three that ranked way ahead of other Web destinations are:
Amazon.com 68%
CDNow.com 45%
eToys.com 43%
The percentage drops sharply to ToysRUs.com, the fourth-ranked e-commerce site and the highest ranked brick-and-mortar retailer, named by 28 percent. Macys.com was sited by a mere 10 percent and was the only department store scoring even that. Virtual stores also out paced famous-name catalog sites like LLBean.com at 20 percent or a specialty clothing store, like the Gap.com at 16 percent. Of course, these companies mainly sell clothing which still is not as widely purchased online. The study found that 19 percent plan to buy clothing online, compared to 47 percent who plan to buy the top online gift -- CDs.
Books closely followed CDs as the second most popular item people will shop for online, with toys and games predicted to challenge computer software for third place, according to the survey.
While the main reasons people say they will do holiday shopping online relate to convenience and avoiding crowds, 60 percent believe they can find the lowest price online and 44 percent expect to be able to purchase those hard-to-find items using the power of the Web.
Price, guaranteed delivery and customer service are the most important factors that will keep online customers happy with their purchases. Some 47 percent worry that they will not be able to return items easily and 43 percent have some concern about credit card safety.
The holiday season would not be complete without the exchange of greeting cards. This year 13 percent plan to buy cards online and most will avoid writer's cramp by sending them electronically.
About Home for the Holidays Study
The Greenfield Online Home for the Holidays shopping study was fielded in July to 4,849 respondents drawn from the company's research panel of more than one million individuals. The data was weighted by age, gender and region to represent the total Internet population.
About Greenfield Online
Greenfield Online, Inc., the pioneer and industry leader for Internet- based consumer research, is a full-service marketing research firm that uses the speed and reach of the Internet to provide custom research studies, as well as periodic tracking studies about e-commerce and hard-to-research groups. Key tracking studies include the Digital Consumer(TM) series, notably the Digital Consumer(TM) Shopping Index. The company also studies groups such as college students, the gay community and mothers with babies. Greenfield's products include FocusChat(TM) to conduct online focus groups, MindStorm(TM) - The Online Think Tank(TM) for online brainstorming, and QuickTake(TM) enabling do-it-yourself surveys. Founded in 1994, the company is headquartered in Westport, Connecticut, with a satellite office in San Francisco. For additional information about Greenfield Online and its services, please call Gail Janensch at 203-429-0111 or visit the company's Web site at greenfieldcentral.com.
SOURCE: Greenfield Online, Inc. |
