SOASTA Holiday Survey: 73 Percent of Americans Will Rely on Websites/Apps to Get Through the Holidays

3 of 4 women will look to online/mobile shopping to keep their holiday spirit intact, while close to 1 in 5 men want flawless web performance for post-turkey movie watching on Thanksgiving Day

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- SOASTA, the leader in performance analytics, today announced the results of its 2015 Holiday Retail Readiness Survey, which revealed that nearly three out of four (73 percent) Americans will rely on websites and apps to get them through the holidays. The survey, fielded among 2,018 American adults aged 18 and older and conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of SOASTA, confirmed that while women rely on websites/apps to do more things (including researching deals and find recipes) this holiday season than men, men are more likely than women to say it is critical that websites and mobile sites perform flawlessly on Thanksgiving Day (46 percent versus 37 percent, respectively).

Women are also more likely than men to say that online and mobile shopping prevent them from losing their holiday spirit (76 percent versus 70 percent, respectively).

Women more reliant on websites and apps this holiday season

According to the survey findings, 73 percent of Americans say they will rely on websites and mobile apps this holiday season.

Half of holiday shoppers say they will rely on them to research the best deals on gifts (49 percent), and nearly a third will use them to buy gifts for everyone on their holiday shopping lists (31 percent). Women are more likely than men to rely on websites/apps this holiday season to find recipes (48 percent versus 28 percent) and post on social media when something funny happens (24 percent versus 17 percent).

Of those who do online shopping over the holidays, women are also more likely than men to rely on websites/apps this holiday season to:

However, a larger number of men (13 percent) than women (10 percent) admitted they will rely on websites/apps to entertain themselves when they’re supposed to be spending time with family.

An ill-fated 5 percent of men will be relying on websites/apps to find themselves a New Year’s Eve date – but no women said they’d be doing the same.

Women count on online shopping to keep holiday spirit intact

Nearly three out of four (73 percent) online holiday shoppers credit online shopping with keeping their holiday spirit intact during the holiday season. This is especially true for women, of whom 76 percent (of online holiday shoppers) will rely on online/mobile shopping to protect their holiday spirit compared to 70 percent of men (online holiday shoppers).

How does online holiday shopping keep their spirits intact? Online holiday shoppers provide these explanations:

Nearly one in four (23 percent) American online holiday shoppers say online shopping helps maintain their holiday spirit because online retailers are less likely to run out of the hot gifts they are looking for, and 20 percent say because it provides the logistics to ship to friends and relatives.

More men will be counting on “flawless” website/mobile performance for the movie nap

More than two in five (41 percent) Americans feel it is critical that websites and mobile sites perform flawlessly on Thanksgiving. Men especially feel this way (46 percent versus 37 percent of women). The top reason Americans (men especially) say that flawless web performance is critical for Thanksgiving is for movie and TV watching over a streaming service – aka, the ‘movie nap’:

• 19 percent of American men (14 percent of women) say flawless website and mobile performance is critical on Thanksgiving to watch TV/movies over a streaming service
• 14 percent of Americans say they’ll need flawless web performance because that’s when most people strategize for Black Friday
• 13 percent of online holiday shoppers say it’s critical because that’s when they will actually begin their holiday shopping
• 11 percent of men will be counting on flawless web and mobile site performance to follow scores of football games (versus only 3 percent of women)
• 9 percent of Americans say flawless web performance will be critical on Thanksgiving to video chat with family

“Millions of Americans will be relying on websites and mobile apps this holiday season, and the stakes couldn’t be higher for digital businesses,” said Tom Lounibos, CEO of SOASTA. “Retailers need to be ready to deliver flawless web and mobile performance for multi-channel users on Thanksgiving Day and every shopping day beyond, and this can only be achieved with an integrated approach to utilize real user data and continuously monitor and test their websites and apps.”

Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of SOASTA from November 5-9, 2015, among 2,018 adults ages 18 and older, among which 1,907 are holiday shoppers, 1,607 are online holiday shoppers, 946 are men and 1,072 are women. This online survey is not based on a probability sample, and, therefore, no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Gaby Perez-Silva: [email protected]

About SOASTA

SOASTA is the leader in performance analytics. The SOASTA platform enables digital business owners to gain unprecedented and continuous performance insights into their real user experience on mobile and web devices in real time and at scale. With more than 5 billion user experiences monitored, measured, tested and optimized every week, SOASTA is the digital performance expert trusted by industry-leading brands, including 44 of the Top 100 Internet retailers, such as Target, Nordstrom, Staples, Home Depot, Sears, Walmart, Etsy, Nike, Best Buy, Adobe, Intuit, Microsoft, DirectTV, Netflix and BBC. SOASTA is privately held and headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. For more information about SOASTA, visit http://www.soasta.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151123005312/en/

SOASTA, Inc.
Gaby Perez-Silva, 650-390-6700
[email protected]

Source: SOASTA, Inc.

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