Online Shoppers Plan to Spend More Than Offline Shoppers This Holiday Season

Compete Study Sheds Light on Holiday Shopping Plans for Online Consumers

BOSTON, Nov. 24 -- Compete, a TNS Media company, today released the results of a new study on consumer holiday shopping behavior revealing that active online buyers (consumers who expect to spend more than 30 percent of their holiday budgets online) have bigger budgets than other shoppers and are more likely to spend those dollars on Black Friday.

Active online buyers plan to spend twice as much throughout this holiday season ($912 on average) as other consumers (those who expect to spend less than 30 percent of their holiday budgets online). 37 percent of the online buyers also say they'll shop the day after Thanksgiving, compared with 33 percent of other consumers.

"Many retailers are bracing for lower online sales, but our research shows that not all shoppers are created equal," said Debra Miller, associate, Retail and Consumers Products at Compete. "While most consumers say they'll spend less this year, online shoppers seem to have deeper pockets and they'll be looking for deals starting on Black Friday. Smart retailers should take a much closer look at online shopping segments relevant to them to capture a larger share of wallet among online consumers."

Additional findings from the Compete holiday shopping study include:
-- 86 percent of shoppers have completed less than half of their total
holiday shopping; 41 percent have not yet begun.
-- 90 percent of consumers will spend at least some portion of their
holiday budget online this year, up from 84 percent in 2008.
-- 42 percent of consumers reported that they are likely or extremely
likely to select an "in store pick up" option if available for holiday
purchases.
-- 44 percent of consumers plan to spend less this holiday season
compared to last year, while only 12 percent of shoppers anticipate
spending more.

The Compete holiday shopping report provides survey-based insights into how consumers plan to shop and spend during the 2009 holiday season. The report was compiled from a comprehensive retail-focused survey of more than 2900 consumers fielded during November 2009. For more information about the study email Matt Pace at mpace@compete.com.

Compete's Retail and Consumer Products practice provides digital intelligence to perfect search marketing; optimize online properties; aid marketing partner identification and negotiation; and respond to competitive inroads and synchronize marketing across channels. The practice measures the engagement of retail shoppers across all media - from online shopping behavior to in-store purchase and intent - what products consumers are researching, the search terms they use, where they cross-shop and how this all translates into online sales.

Source: Compete