In 2006, online shopping accounted for just 18% of responses. It hit an all-time high in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, with 55% citing it as their top destination. It shrunk to 51% last year, preserving some, but not all, of the gains from the pandemic. However, this year it reached an all-time high.
The survey was conducted from December 8th to December 12th among 1,002 Americans nationwide and has a margin of error of +/-3.1%.
The reason for the spike is unclear, but trends in people spending more online this year suggest it may be driven by bargain hunting to combat inflation. Among the groups spending the most online are women over 50, who as a group have more frugal holiday spending plans than average and report being more concerned about inflation and the overall state of the economy. are doing. Still, this group does less of their shopping online than young women aged 18-49. Additionally, people with incomes under $30,000 and those who only plan to spend $200 on gifts are spending more online this year than last year, far below the average of $1,300.
“The rest of the data shows that inflation is a major factor in why people are spending less and spending more,” said Micah Roberts of Public Opinion Strategies, the study’s Republican pollster. said. You will have to spend more to buy it. ”
Groups vary in how much they spend online, but where they spend is fairly uniform. Amazon. Again, the continuation since this question was first asked six years ago is that Amazon is the number one destination for online shopping, and no other company comes close. In 2017, only 35% of Americans said Amazon was their top online destination. Now, that percentage has risen to a staggering 74%, unchanged from last year but below its 2019 high.
Its only other competitor, Walmart, saw a slight increase, rising from 12% last year to just 4% in 2017 to 16%. Specialty goods stores such as Etsy and local store websites also rose from 8% to 14%.
About the same percentage of Americans say they plan to borrow money to pay for gifts this year as in previous years, with 31% saying they will cover it through holiday spending, an increase of 1 percentage point from last year. However, 10% said they would use a “buy now, pay later” plan.
View the full survey here.