Pablo Rodriguez, Head of Global Consumer Initiatives, PayPal
Another interesting find? People aren’t afraid of a little restroom retail (R&R, as I like to all it), with 15% of respondents admitting to doing their holiday shopping from the restroom– and of those, 29% were under the age of 25! We all know millennials seek convenience in their lives, but clearly they’re also big fans of multi-tasking.
Online and Mobile Shopping Top the Charts
While we might have a good laugh at our survey findings, what’s really interesting is how important online and mobile shopping has become for a lot of people. For example, one third (34%) of those surveyed have used a mobile device to help with shopping, and 49% use a mobile device to research deals while in-store.
Coming out of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we saw that mobile was dominating the shopping game with a 62% and 53% increase, respectively. Industry reports state similar increases in mobile usage as well as the evolution of how we shop during the holidays. In fact, it’s no longer about Cyber Monday, but Cyber Month – our survey found that 30% of people did most of their holiday shopping after Cyber Monday, and only 5% shopped on the actual “cyber holiday.”
Or perhaps it should be called Cyber MONTHS since holiday shopping continues to happen earlier and earlier each year. And the continued growth of shopping on mobile devices goes hand in hand with this trend, as people are shopping when it’s most convenient to them (which as we now know, sometimes just happens to be from the toilet).
A Streamlined Checkout Process is Key
Online shopping – whether from a desktop or a mobile device – reportedly streamlines the holiday experience for 52% of us, and allows us to do more of what is especially important during this time of year, like spending time with family. When you add PayPal to the mix, your holiday shopping becomes even faster and safer, so you can enjoy that cocktail sooner.
If you’re part of the 69% who like to shop from bed, remember that if you still need to finish your holiday shopping this week, shipping deadlines are fast approaching, so you better check off everyone on your list before you go to sleep tonight. Happy Holidays!
*The survey was conducted using the web-enabled KnowledgePanel®, a probability-based panel designed to be representative of the U.S. population. Interviews were conducted December 5 – 7, 2014 among a National sample of 1018 Adults 18+. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points.