Survey Reveals What Shoppers Want Most From Retailers This Holiday Season

We surveyed over 2,500 American shoppers across a variety of malls about what in-store feature is most important to them this holiday season and the answer was astonishingly clear: deals, deals, and more deals!

Here are the results from our 2019 Holiday QuickPoll Survey:

While the majority of our survey respondents were young shoppers under 30, “great deals” was the most important feature (65%) for all age groups surveyed. Trailing behind, in second place (14%), was a dedicated “gift ideas section” in the store. Even less essential in-store features, ranked in order of importance, were:

• a fast and efficient checkout (7%)
• the ability to buy online and pick up in store or BOPIS (6%)
• festive holiday decor (4%)
• extra staff on hand to help (4%)

The fact that American consumers love a good deal should come as no surprise. Sales and promotions are often cited as the main motivator behind a purchase. Shoppers want to be sure that they spent their money smartly. That’s why couponing, especially online coupon apps, is still so popular – it’s effective!

Other noteworthy statistics from our 2019 holiday shopping survey:

• Shoppers under 20 and in their 30s were the most sales-oriented with approximately 70% of them choosing “great deals” as the most important deciding factor.

If you’re a retailer appealing to a young demographic, offering more or better sales should be your main focus this holiday season.

• Only 3% of the under-20 age group chose festive store decor as the most important feature.

Teens and young millennials couldn’t care less about festive decor, it seems. Retailers should invest in better sales signage to lure in young shoppers!

• The ability to buy online and pick up in store came in 2nd place for shoppers in their 50s, with 21% of middle-aged respondents choosing BOPIS as the most important retail feature this holiday season

BOPIS is one of the newer retail trends that’s gone mainstream and retailers might be surprised to know that it’s the middle-age shopper – not the young millennial – that’s demanding the ability to buy online and pick up in store.

Retailers embarking on the 2019 holiday season should take away one important message: a whopping 3 out of 4 shoppers are primarily seeking out one thing: a good deal. Make the shopper feel smart, and you’ve won the holidays.