Americans Search Online for Coupons, Deals, Coupon Codes or Sales Before Making a Purchase During the Christmas Season

According to a recent online study conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Offers.com, more than nine in ten (94%) Americans over the age of 18 are making purchases online, including 7% who report making online purchases more than once a week. More than one in ten say that they are making online purchases weekly (14%), and another two in five do this on a monthly basis (36%) or again at least a few times a year (37%). In contrast, only 6% of Americans over the age of 18 say that they never make online purchases.

Those who are most likely to be frequent online shoppers (defined here as shopping online at least monthly) include younger adults (64%, ages 18-34), those earning more than $50,000 annually (66%), those who have children living at home (72%), are married (64%), and adults who have a college degree (66%).
Those who frequently seek holiday savings online (73%) and adults who plan to use a mobile device when holiday shopping (67%) are also among the most likely to say that they make purchases online at least monthly.

Online shopping trends remain consistent with those seen in 2015, where only 5% reported that they never make online purchases.

The majority of Americans say that they plan to use their mobile device when shopping this holiday season (63%), and this is especially true for those under the age of 35 (86%), the more affluent (70%, earning over $50,000), those with children living at home (81%), adults with a college degree (69%), and those who are married (66%). This includes roughly a third who plan to look for coupons/ deals (35%), compare products at different stores (34%), check product reviews (32%), and make purchases (32%) using their mobile devices. Just over a quarter (27%) also believe that they will use their mobile device to get directions to the store when shopping this holiday season. On the other hand, just under two in five (37%) don’t plan to use their mobile device at all when shopping this holiday season.

The overall proportion of those who plan to use their mobile device when shopping this holiday season has increased since 2015 (63% up from 56%), although it should be noted that the question wording changed very slightly from 2015 to 2016 to accommodate additional emergent mobile phone usages.

When asked what percentage of their holiday shopping will take place using a mobile device, a quarter (23%) believe that they will make less than 20% of all their purchases using their phones/ tablets, while another one in ten estimate that between 21-40% (13%) or again 41%-60% (11%) of their total holiday shopping will be completed using a mobile device. Just under one in ten (8%) believe that the majority (over 61%) of their holiday shopping will take place using a mobile device. However, two in five (39%) report that none of their holiday shopping will take place on mobile, while 7% are not quite sure.

Older individuals (60%, ages 55+), the less affluent (49% earning less than $50,000), those with no children living at home (47%), and adults lacking a college degree (45%) are significantly more likely to say that none of their holiday shopping will take place on mobile this year.

A similar trend is seen among those who never shop online (71%) and those who don’t plan to use their mobile device at all for holiday shopping (82%).