Consumers brace for tight holiday budget

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Consumers brace for tight holiday budget

October 06, 2008

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Melbourne, Australia--Nearly half of adult consumers who shop online plan to spend less money on gifts this holiday season compared with last year, and one in five plan to spend significantly less, according to a new survey by Harris Interactive.

As a result, the survey finds these consumers will use a variety of shopping strategies to spend less money on holiday gifts this year, including using coupons. According to the survey, 89 percent of respondents think coupons are a great way to save money, and 35 percent of those who will be spending less on gifts this holiday season will use coupons.

In addition to coupon use, consumers who will be spending less money on gifts this holiday season report they will use the following shopping strategies:

--80 percent will purchase fewer gifts this year, either by buying gifts for fewer people (46 percent), buying a smaller amount of gifts for the same number of people (43 percent) and/or making some gifts instead of purchasing them (22 percent).
--63 percent will buy less expensive gifts.
--44 percent will shop at discount stores.
--37 percent will shop online, either to find better deals (32 percent) and/or to save money on gas (24 percent).
--29 percent will shop early to avoid impulse buys.
--19 percent will shop during Black Friday sales.
--12 percent will wait until the last minute to get more discounts.

When shopping online, consumers are becoming increasingly Web-savvy in the way they look for bargains. According to the survey, 85 percent of online shoppers use tools or Web sites to find good deals, including:

--56 percent use search engines.
--32 percent use price-comparison Web sites
--25 percent use online coupon Web sites.
--23 percent use online advertisements.
--12 percent use bargain-tracking Web sites.
--5 percent use shopping-themed social networks

"In addition to empowering consumers with the information they need to save money, online tools are creating new channels for retailers to reach budget-conscience shoppers and drive sales despite the decrease in spending this holiday season," said Guy King, co-founder of RetailMeNot.com, a popular coupon Web site that offers more than 100,000 coupons for more than 20,000 stores.

This Online Shopping survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of RetailMeNot.com between Sept. 10-12, among 2,022 U.S. adults ages 18-plus, of whom 1,783 shop online. The data has been weighted to reflect the composition of the online U.S. adult population on the basis of Internet usage (hours per week) and connection type.

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