Written by: Christina Lewis
Edited by: Lillian Castro
HostingAdvice survey reports 90% of US consumers will shop for holiday gifts this year, many will choose to settle for last-minute digital gifts.
A new consumer survey from HostingAdvice found that Americans overwhelmingly rank Amazon and Walmart as having the easiest user experience for finding the right holiday gifts and making purchases. With the clock ticking to find last-minute holiday gifts, shoppers will need to rely on the internet to receive gifts in time for holiday exchanges.
HostingAdvice.com surveyed more than 1,000 people to find out which websites U.S. consumers believe offer the easiest path to purchase those last-minute gifts:
- 73% Amazon
- 56% Walmart
- 38% Target
- 24% Best Buy
- 23% eBay
- 20% Etsy
- 16% Google Shopping
- 16% Facebook Marketplace
- 11% Wish
- 10% ChatGPT
The survey also revealed that men and women may have differing opinions on which websites offer the easiest user experience for finding holiday gifts. Nearly 79% of women surveyed responded that Amazon offers the easiest experience for finding holiday gifts compared to 67% of men. Men were also more likely to prefer the user experience offered by Best Buy (29% men vs. 19% women), eBay (30% men vs. 16% women), Google Shopping (20% men vs. 11% women), and ChatGPT (15% men vs. 5% women).
In contrast, 24% of women surveyed preferred the user experience offered by Etsy compared to 16% of men. Target’s user experience was roughly equal, with 37% of men and 38% of women responding that Target offers the easiest user experience for finding holiday gifts online.
Digital Gifts Trending Among Last-Minute Shoppers This Year
Another recent holiday survey from HostingAdvice found that more than one-third of surveyed Americans (36%) said they are planning to purchase web/digital services or subscriptions vs. a physical present as a holiday gift this year. That survey also revealed that 34% of people surveyed said they would rather receive web/digital services or subscriptions as a holiday gift this year vs. a physical gift.
Following record online spending during Thanksgiving, consumers can expect holiday shipping delays. The HostingAdvice survey reports that a whopping 90% of Americans said they will be doing holiday shopping online this year, with 44% of those conducting more than half of their holiday shopping online, and another 23% saying they would be doing all of their holiday shopping online.
As our studies would imply, those gift-seekers who have procrastinated their holiday shopping are prime customers for purchasing digital gifts, such as subscriptions and memberships to a variety of in-demand items. While the top retailers all offer ease of finding gifts, as well as e-gift cards, there are many alternative options for securing quick last-minute gifts such as digital streaming services, magazines, food and beverage, online classes, movie and concert tickets, and so much more.
Here are some trending digital gift ideas as an alternative to store gift cards:
- Sling TV Live
- Spotify Premium
- Amazon Kindle Unlimited
- Audible Plus
- PlayStation Plus
- Rosetta Stone
- Apple Fitness+
- GoldBelly eGift Cards
- Etsy eGift Cards
- GlobalGiving
Survey Methodology
A national online survey of 1,036 U.S. consumers, ages 18 and over, was conducted by Propeller Insights on behalf of HostingAdvice in October 2023. Survey responses were nationally representative of the U.S. population for age, gender, region, and ethnicity. The maximum margin of sampling error was +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
