Despite plans to tighten their belts, 85% of consumers plan to shop online and 69% plan to make an online holiday purchase, a new survey from Burst finds. Consumers also anticipate using the Internet to shop around, with 57% of consumers planning to compare different retailers to find the best price and 55% planning to use the web to compare brands’ features, according to the Burst report.
The survey also found that more than 27% of consumers who made an online purchase a year ago plan to increase their online spending this year. Nearly 15% will decrease online spending. For those who didn’t make an online purchase last year, roughly 33% plan to do so this year.
“Consumers will be frugal this holiday season,” says Chuck Moran, Burst chief marketing officer. “But they’re also going to continue shifting their spending dollars online.”
The Burst results dovetail with the National Retail Federation’s 2009 holiday forecast that projects retail industry sales to drop 1% to $437.6 billion. For the year, the NRF expects online retail sales to account for 5% of total retail sales, or $156.1 billion, up from $141.3 billion a year ago.
Although the National Retail Federation’s forecast falls below the 10-year average of 3.4% holiday growth, the decline is not likely to be as dramatic as last year’s 3.4% drop in holiday retail sales.It was the first year NRF has reported a decline since it began tracking retail industry sales in 1992.
“I think what’s different between last year and this year is that there was a lot more uncertainty last year,” says Scott Silverman, Shop.org executive director. “There was no indication the end was in sight since every day there were headlines about layoffs in the tens of thosands and headlines about the banking industry. Things haven’t recovered to the point where we can say that it’s all behind us, but it certainly feels a lot more stable.”
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