Four in 10 consumers have holiday shopped drunk

Some consumers may find holiday surprises on their doorstep – gifts they bought while under the influence.

According to a new survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers from online resale platform Decluttr, one in five respondents say they are likely to drink and shop online during the 2020 holiday season. However, 41% admit to online holiday shopping while under the influence in prior years. And almost three in 10 (27%) respondents have purchased a holiday gift online while intoxicated and not remembered doing so until it arrived.

These findings align with a pair of studies released in March 2020 which indicated 58.4 million Americans had spent $44.9 billion for online drunk purchases in the past 12 months, and that on average, Americans spent $736 per person for online drunk purchases.

The Decluttr study also examined some non-alcohol-related online holiday shopping trends, including:

• 40% of respondents plan to avoid shopping areas and malls this season;
• More than half plan to do all of their Black Friday shopping exclusively online this year;
• 22% plan to shop online while video chatting with friends and family.

Popular technology gift items and categories respondents plan to purchase during the 2020 holiday season include Playstation 5 (20%), headphones (29%), virtual assistants (20%), and smart home security gadgets (20%). Close to one-quarter (23%) of respondents plan to buy themselves a new iPhone 12 as a holiday treat.