Computop, a payment service provider, polled more than 1,900 consumers in the U.S. and U.K. to get a sense of their shopping behaviors this holiday season, as well as their concerns in terms of internet security. It found that, while 76 percent will use the internet to make purchases this holiday season, 62 percent don’t plan to do that shopping on Cyber Monday, which is the Monday after the Black Friday shopping weekend and used to be the kickoff to the holidays. With retailers offering Black Friday-type deals as early as the summer and with internet discounts and deals being offered year-round, the survey respondents don’t see the need to dedicate Cyber Monday to their holiday shopping.
In the U.S., 50 percent of survey respondents said they would skip Cyber Monday, while 50 percent said they would partake. In the U.K., 77 percent of survey respondents said they would skip Cyber Monday. In terms how much consumers plan to spend, Computop found 55 percent of survey respondents said they plan to keep their spending levels in line with last year, while 19 percent plan to increase their spending.
The report also found 50 percent of all respondents said they weren’t interested in shopping internationally, and an additional 22 percent said they were concerned about the security of their payments if they chose to shop outside their home countries.
