Consumers begin to ‘Go Social’ for Gift recommendations.

Consumers are planning their shopping for this holiday season, and they are focused on clothing, technology, and children’s toys. However, Santa is not the only source for gift advice this year; consumers are utilizing multiple information sources-both traditional and emerging technology sources-in their planning and shopping process.

Three in five (60%) Americans said they will be shopping for clothing this holiday season, with African-American shoppers, females, and households with children most likely to include this category on their shopping list. Nearly half (46%) of shoppers will be looking for toys, with two thirds (69%) of these toy shoppers coming from households with children. Technology is high on many shoppers’ lists again this year with over a third of those shopping for gifts saying they will be shopping for either personal electronics (38%)-laptops, tablets, video games, iPods/MP3 players-or home electronics/entertainment (36%)-TVs, DVDs, etc. Consumers least likely to be shopping for these products are Matures (those ages 66+) and those in households without children.

What is extremely interesting is the breadth of resources that consumers will be utilizing in their shopping and preparation. Consumers are still relying on more traditional sources of information-store flyers, recommendations from friends and family, and magazines/newspaper ads-as a primary source of information. However, they are also utilizing Internet resources in their shopping preparation, including company websites and search engines, especially in the personal electronics and home electronics categories (ranging from 41% to 50% in these two categories).

This combination of traditional and technological resources is even more evident when consumers are in the stores shopping. While in-store promos, displays, and flyers are still key resources (ranging from 44% to 60% usage, depending upon the category), technology continues to grow as a shopping resource, with consumers using their mobile phones to look at price comparison sites, check pricing at other stores, and search for online coupons (ranging from a low of 6% to a high of 20%, again depending upon product category).

We are also seeing the use of social media sites-company Facebook pages, personal Facebook pages, Twitter, blogs, etc.-in shopping activities, with from 2% to 10% of consumers utilizing at least one of these resources either prior to shopping or while they are at the store.

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