Study Finds Holiday Shoppers Taking Great Deals Lying Down

Earlier today, Verizon (News - Alert) released the results of a new survey, the "Verizon FiOS Innovation Index: Borderless Lifestyle Survey", and discovered that, when it came to shopping, potential customers were taking the best deals lying down, and not in a figurative fashion. The survey revealed that customers are overwhelmingly planning to avoid the crowds and mayhem and instead do as much holiday shopping from home in specific places within the home.

The "Verizon FiOS (News - Alert) Innovation Index: Borderless Lifestyle Survey", covering 2,324 adults from ages 18 up, showed overwhelmingly that customers planned to shop from home, with 87 percent of respondents planning to stay home as much as possible. Of that substantial number, a surprisingly large half planned to do so rather conventionally, from a home-office desk. But fully 21 percent were planning to do their shopping from the couch, and eight percent planned to shop from bed, meaning nearly a third of online shoppers meant to take their deals lying down.


Image via Shutterstock

Moreover, the type of platform from which the online shoppers intend to do their shopping was both clear and somewhat unexpected. Six percent of all consumers--10 percent of borderless consumers—will use tablets and smartphones to do their shopping online. Substantially more--33 percent of all consumers, and 37 percent of borderless consumers--will do their shopping from a PC.

Interestingly, when it came to the actual holiday itself, even the most tech-savvy of customers preferred to spend their holiday not in the company of technology, but overwhelmingly in favor of loved ones. When asked if they'd rather spend the holiday with relatives they didn't much care for but who had high-quality electronics or with relatives they're happy to see who had lesser-grade tech, overwhelmingly both borderless consumers and regular consumers chose the stone-age relative they were happy to see; 81 percent of all consumers weighed in for the low-tech relative while borderless consumers backed the low-tech relative in 77 percent of cases.

This should go a long way toward showing stores what needs to be done, specifically, ramp up the online experience and in as many possible directions as can be done, while at the same time, not ignoring the brick-and-mortar side of things.

Showrooming is alive and well, so being prepared to not only receive that business, but make it easier to buy from the showroom will do well. Also the larger proportion of PC shoppers to those using mobile gear; this may reflect a somewhat reduced mobile site presence, or a lack of optimization in the mobile shopping experience. But either way, it's an opportunity that's slipping away. Consider the impact that eBay (News - Alert) had with its bliss spa tie-in that gave Black Friday (News - Alert) shoppers the opportunity to not only shop, but get pampered in the process.

The new Verizon survey has a lot of food for thought for retailers this holiday season, and provides some insight on what the next one may look like as well. Those retailers wanting a successful season, meanwhile, will take the lessons it offers to heart and plan accordingly.