As the weather starts to turn, people around the country start preparing for the 2012 holiday shopping season. SOASTA (News - Alert), Inc., a cloud and mobile testing service, has announced the results of its 2012 Holiday and Economy survey, which polled 2,346 American adults via Harris Interactive.

With retailers concerned about the amount of online shopping that detracts from in-store purchases, it seems that there is one factor they can’t control: other shoppers. Of those polled, 51 percent responded that they plan to shop online because of the bad economy and 31 percent of those shoppers responded that they believe that the bad economy will “bring out the crazy” in other shoppers at traditional stores, where the behavior that doorbuster deals and other specials bring out are likely to rival a Salvatore Ferragamo sample sale.


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Some more shopping trends revealed by the survey included:

• 71 percent of Americans believe that they find better deals online than they do in brick-and-mortar stores.
• 53 percent of Americans prefer shopping online because it saves them money that they would have spent on gas, had they had to drive from store to store.
• 20 percent of Americans cited their motivation for shopping online as the fact that the number of hours that they work each week make it difficult for them to find the time to shop.

There were also a number of key trends in consumer thinking with regards to mobile apps:

• 46 percent of Americans say that mobile apps designed to avoid long check-out lines will make the holidays better.
• 52 percent said that mobile apps will make finding Black Friday (News - Alert) deals easier.
• 47 percent responded that mobile apps will help them to make better shopping plans when they are on-the-go, helping them to decide where to shop next and find the address.

SOASTA CEO Tom Lounibos (News - Alert) reflected on the results, saying, “The results of our Holiday and the Economy Survey have shown that more Americans will be relying on retailers’ online mobile and web presence for holiday shopping due to the bad economy than not.” 

Online shopping will, undoubtedly, be big once again this year; however, physical stores can leverage the online experience to drive consumers to their store by making sure that their mobile applications and website are up-to-date and make the shopping experience a more productive and less stressful one.

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