RYE BROOK, N.Y.- Twenty-three percent of consumers plan to shop online for Valentine’s Day gifts, with 9 percent indicating they will spend more money online compared to last year. This represents an increase in online shoppers over the 2009 Valentine’s Day holiday.
Further, the majority of consumers will shop for gifts other than the traditional flowers and chocolates.
This is according to the eBillme Online Spending Index, a quarterly survey
conducted by Javelin Strategy and Research. The Index polls 1,200 consumers to
measure projected online spending for the quarter and the influencing factors.
According to the Q1 Index, consumers plan to spend an average of $236 online,
which is in line with spending levels from Q1 2009.
This quarter, consumers were also asked if they have decided what purchases they
will make for Valentine’s Day. Overall, 47 percent of respondents do not know
what to purchase for their loved ones.
- Fifty percent of males are unsure about Valentines Day gifts for her.
- Forty-five percent of females are unsure about Valentines Day gifts for
him. - Consumers who are married or living with their partners responded with
more uncertainty. - Consumers become more certain about what to purchase with age. Consumers
65 years old and over responded with more certainty than consumers in the
younger demographics.
Valentine’s Day is an opportunity for retailers to build on holiday sales,
says Samer Forzley, Vice President of Marketing for eBillme. The number of
consumers planning to shop online for Valentine’s gifts and spend more than last
year is encouraging news for the eCommerce industry. It’s interesting to see
that consumers are looking towards more non-traditional gifts this year but are
still in the dark about they will be purchasing. For e-tailers, this means there
is still time to market and capture these undecided sales.
The Online Spending Index is released quarterly by eBillme, the most secure
payment option online that enables consumers to pay with cash using online
banking and walk-in locations. eBillme offers consumers buyer protection
features including satisfaction guarantee, best price, in-transit protection,
and fraud protection, in addition to cash-back rewards through the eBillme
Rewards program.
For more information or to receive the full findings from this quarter’s Index,
please contact Samer Forzley at
sforzley@eBillme.com.
About the Index
The Index is based on data collected from an online consumer survey deployed
quarterly starting in August 2008, with a sample size of 1,209 respondents. The
survey targeted U.S. adults (age 18 +) and was based on representative
proportions of gender, ethnicity, and income as compared to the overall U.S.
online population. Overall margin of sampling error is 2.8 percentage points at
the 95 percent confidence level.
The next Index will be released in April 2010. Data from the Index will be
posted on the eBillme Web site at
http://blog.eBillme.com.
About eBillme
eBillme is the most secure way to pay online and the only online payment
solution that extends the convenience of online banking to the merchant’s
checkout process. The service enhances security for online shoppers, and enables
merchants to increase sales while reducing transaction costs. No financial data
is exposed and the payment transaction is securely transferred from the
customer’s bank to the retailer’s bank. Consumers can shop online, by catalog or
through call centers, and pay for their purchases at their bank, credit union,
or bill pay portal using the security and convenience of online banking or by
paying the bill at over 75,000 walk-in locations. For more information, please
visit www.eBillme.com or eBillme’s Online Debt-Free Shopping Mall at
http://Shop.eBillme.com.
Source:
eBillme