Survey: E-commerce, spending on the rise this holiday season

It might still technically be summer, but a new survey from Rubicon Project is showing that the holidays are already on consumers’ minds in the U.S., U.K. and Canada.

In particular, some 42% of parents have begun shopping, and it looks like Amazon is the top destination for holiday shoppers, beating out Walmart and Target, which are the second and third most popular destinations, respectively.

“Consumers have taken control of the holiday shopping season, starting earlier, and signaling a clear desire to shop online and on mobile devices,” Rubicon Project SVP Dallas Lawrence said. “Brands looking to win big this holiday season should take note and align their engagement campaigns to the new reality of the in-control and on-demand consumer who is just as comfortable buying online or on their mobile devices as they are in store.”

If brands can get a grasp on shopper engagement, there’s a definite reward for them, as 78% of those surveyed by Rubicon Project said they planned to spend more money than they did last year for an average spending of $1,011. Forty-eight percent of parents are planning on spending more this year than last. And that money is increasingly going online.

That many consumers are planning on taking to Amazon for their shopping is underscored by the nearly 75% of people who will shop online — which includes a third of Americans and 96% of parents in the U.S. Additionally, Americans planning on shopping online expect to spend 20% more this year than the ones who plan to shop in brick-and-mortar stores. And not all online shopping is done from a computer — mobile commerce is on the rise, with 25% of U.S. shoppers buying gifts from their smartphone.

“Whether consumers are shopping from their tablet or clicking through an ad on their smartphone, more consumers than ever are researching, price comparing, and shopping on-the-go, with nearly one in four holiday shoppers in the U.S. planning to shop on their smartphones this year,” Joe Prusz, Rubicon Project’s head of mobile said. “For brands that embrace the consumer shift to mobile, it will surely be a very merry mobile year.”

For more insights from the survey, see Rubicon Project’s inforgraphic below.