Disloyal customers offer holiday hope

Customers show surprisingly little reaction to loyalty programs, but for the upcoming holiday season this could be a good thing for retailers.

Software provider Thoughtworks Retail recently conducted a holiday shopping survey of more than 500 U.S. adults.

Only 9% of those surveyed limit their shopping to retailers with which they have loyalty card or rewards memberships, and only 25% say a store or website’s loyalty program is important to them and will influence whether they shop there.

Further illustrating this point, 77% of consumers say they will shop stores or websites during the holidays that they don’t usually shop, represents an opportunity for retailers to find new customers during the holidays.

When it comes to mobile holiday shopping, more than half (51%) of those surveyed said they will not use mobile apps to help them shop during the holidays. However, 20% indicated they have Amazon’s mobile app, 15% have Google and 15% have Target’s Cartwheel app on their mobile devices.

Nearly 60% of consumers say they “shop all throughout the holiday season”; good news for retailers whose Black Friday sales fall short of expectations. In fact, only one-third of shoppers say they always shop on Black Friday. Another reason for retailers to remain hopeful: one in four shoppers save their shopping until the last minute.

Perhaps less surprisingly, men are almost twice as likely as women to procrastinate. Furthermore:

• 20% of consumers never shop on Black Friday.

• 31% always shop on Cyber Monday.

• 9% don’t know what Cyber Monday is.

58% of consumers plan to have something shipped this holiday season.