The proportion of Christmas online shopping in the United States has reached a new high! Amazon is still the first choice for Americans

After two years of decline, online shopping finally made a comeback in the U.S. during this year’s holiday season. According to a CNBC survey of the U.S. economy, 57% of Americans listed online shopping as their preferred channel for buying Christmas gifts.

In 2006, this figure was 18%, and it reached an all-time high in 2020 when the epidemic was at its worst. At that time, 55% of Americans said that they would choose online shopping as their preferred way to buy Christmas gifts. However, as the epidemic eased, this proportion dropped to 51% last year. Unexpectedly, this figure actually broke the historical record again this year.

It is reported that this conclusion was drawn based on a survey of 1,002 consumers across the United States from December 8 to 12, with an error rate of +/-3.1% .

It is not clear why online sales have surged, but judging by the increase in online shopping this year, it may be to find cheaper goods to cope with inflation. The survey shows that women aged 50 and above are the group that spends more online. Their holiday spending budget is smaller than the average, and they are more worried about inflation and the overall economic situation.

However, this group still makes less online purchases than young women aged 18 to 49. Others who spent more online this year than last year included those with incomes below $30,000 and those who planned to spend only $200 on gifts, which is far less than the average of $1,300.

Micah Roberts, a staff member of Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican polling organization in the United States, who was responsible for the survey , said that we know from other data that inflation is an important factor in people spending less and less; everything has become more expensive, so people have to spend more money to buy things.

Although the amount of online consumption varies among different groups, their choice of online shopping platform is surprisingly consistent : Amazon.

Amazon has once again become the top online shopping platform for Americans, unrivaled since the first survey of this type of question six years ago. But in 2017, only 35% of consumers said Amazon was their first choice for online shopping; this year the number is 74%, the same as last year, but still lower than the peak in 2019.

Its competitor Walmart also increased from 12% last year to 16% this year. In 2017, the figure was only 14%.

In addition, the proportion of people who plan to use debt to buy gifts this year is roughly the same as last year, with 31% saying they will use the balance in their personal bank account to make purchases, up 1% from last year, and another 10% saying they will use the "buy now, pay later" (BNPL) method.

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