Showrooming will be key shopping behaviour this Christmas says survey

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 10, 2016

Showrooming will be the new normal for UK shoppers this Christmas shopping season with a new Accenture survey revealing that 75% of patrons will try on in-store, before buying later online, and often from another retailer’s website. That’s a 21% rise year-on-year.

Webrooming, where consumers comparison shop online first then buy in-store will also be key for 72% of consumers, a 19% year-on-year increase.

Accenture’s UK Holiday Shopping Survey of 1,500 consumers also said that click-and-collect has also seen a huge rise in popularity among UK shoppers. Some 43% of survey respondents said they are planning to take advantage of this option (up 12% from 2015). Additionally, over half (56%) of shoppers are likely to buy additional items during their in-store visit to pick up an online purchase (up 13% from 2015).

Accenture said despite 85% of consumers likely to spend the same or more compared with last year, shoppers plan to go the extra mile for good deals. Eight out of 10 shoppers are planning to check Amazon.co.uk before looking or buying elsewhere and nearly three-quarters (74%) of respondents said they will purchase items from different stores or sites to get the lowest price, rather than buy all items in one place.

Meanwhile, over half (54%) are likely to be enticed by promotions to shop in stores they have not shopped at in the past year. On average, a 30% discount will persuade consumers to purchase an item.

The survey also found that 57% of shoppers say their spending habits have been entirely unaffected by the Brexit vote. Finally, just 11% said they are both more cautious on essentials and are not spending anything on non-essentials following the UK referendum result.