Study

Americans to Spend With Confidence This Holiday Season

- Seventy-five percent of consumers expect to spend at least the same amount of money as last year

- More than one in four say they will shop online for gifts, with about half of online shoppers expecting to spend $100-$300

- Online shoppers report they would be positively influenced by a variety of web-based promotions

Baltimore, MD, October 11, 2001- Contradicting current notions that consumer confidence has plummeted to an unprecedented low, 75 percent of shoppers recently surveyed expect to spend at least the same amount of money for the 2001 holiday season as they did last year- with 15 percent of them saying they plan to spend even more. The random national telephone omnibus survey was sponsored by Advertising.com, Inc., an interactive marketing company that creates web, wireless and email promotional programs for retailers and other direct marketers, and was conducted by International Communications Research. All surveys were conducted between September 28 and October 2, about two weeks following terrorist attacks on the nation.

With the 2001 holiday season fast approaching, more than 25 percent of consumers will be shopping online. Approximately half of those online shoppers expect to spend between $100 and $300, with an additional 25 percent planning to spend in excess of $300 online.

"Consumers are increasingly looking to the Internet as their one-stop shop for the holidays," said Scott Ferber, chief executive officer of Advertising.com. "As an alternative to crowded shopping malls, the Internet provides the speed, simplicity and comparison shopping capabilities not afforded by traditional outlets. The primary key to success for marketers is guaranteeing the ease and speed with which their customers can make a purchase. However, it is equally as important for marketers to precisely predict day-to-day purchasing volumes so that existing order placement and fulfillment processes are reliable."

With nearly 75 percent of consumers indicating that they do not plan to use the Internet for their holiday shopping needs, marketers have a vastly untapped resource for soliciting new customers. Marketing efforts are typically enhanced with the availability of integrated offline and online incentives such as coupons, free samples and sweepstakes. Of the online shoppers surveyed, 76 percent described a variety of promotions as positive influences on their buying behavior. Coupons and free samples are the most favored promotions, followed by contests, games, sweepstakes and banner ads. Specifically, nearly 50 percent of respondents cited online coupons as potentially persuasive when shopping online.

"Promotions can be highly effective in converting holiday shoppers into online purchasers," said Ferber. "Web-based promotions inherently have an edge over traditional promotions because they are cost-efficient and can be developed and implemented quickly. For example, at Advertising.com we are able to have campaigns up and running within hours. It is the ease of interaction that characterizes most successful promotional campaigns. They should require minimal effort on the part of the consumer - initially collecting only basic consumer information that can be used for more extensive re-marketing and data collection efforts in the future."

Electronics Top The List

For the upcoming holiday season, those consumers with a combined household income of $75,000 or more expect to do the most online shopping, with electronics as their primary intended purchase.

Electronics also ranked highest among men-52 percent said they were most likely to purchase electronics online during the 2001 holidays. Women, however, say they are planning more diversified online holiday shopping lists. Toys, music, and clothes were among their top choices. Overall, when asked about their likelihood to purchase certain items online, respondents ranked these items in the following order:

Electronics (39%)
Music (36%)
Toys (34%)
Clothing (32%)
Housewares (23%)
Magazine subscriptions (11%)
Jewelry (9%)