Consumers continue to value both online and brick-and-mortar options, with majority of consumers saying they’d shop both avenues this holiday season.
Paige Barton of Springboro always goes out to the Dayton Mall and Best Buy with her family, but said she prefers to shop online.
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“I personally am an Amazon shopper. If I don’t want to get out of the house, I buy it on Amazon and it gets shipped to my house in two days,” Barton said. “I think the only thing that keeps us going Black Friday shopping would be the tradition of it. But if it wasn’t our tradition, I would order off Amazon.”
After three-straight days of heavy shopping on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, shoppers had just a Sunday break before being hit with new deals from online retailers today.
“Researchers have found that people like to do their online shopping while they’re at work, maybe as a little break from the monotony of the day, and so Monday after Thanksgiving is the perfect day to do that,” said Riley Dugan, a marketing professor at the University of Dayton.
Cyber Monday and Cyber Week deals started popping up late last week. Popular retailers like Walmart, Kohl’s, Best Buy, Macy’s, Target and Amazon will offer deep discounts on televisions, laptops, kitchen appliances, gaming systems and more.
Erin Shearer from Dayton did some shopping early last week before the Thanksgiving rush hit. She said she was getting what she needed out of the way to avoid the crowds this weekend, but staying home wouldn’t keep her from getting those holiday deals.
“I am a Cyber Monday shopper. I am an online shopper pretty much always, unless I’m buying clothes for myself,” Shearer said. “All my Christmas presents come from online shopping.”
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Consumer shopping habits have changed to favor the convenience of online shopping, especially during major holidays.
“The draw now is being on Amazon Prime, it’s the free shipping,” said Nicole Weber of West Carrollton. “It’s easy. You get it, and if you don’t like it you can return it, usually before Christmas.”
Yet even shoppers who frequent online deals do have some concern shopping this holiday season,
“I’m always a little nervous about what I’m getting when I do shop online and if it’s going to make it, but I do do some online shopping,” said Kerry McIntosh of Waynesville.
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The United States Postal Service, FedEx and United Parcel Service all expect to handle a record number of packages this year, and experts have warned that the increase could complicate delivery systems and cause major package delays. The National Retail Federation estimates 75 million people will shop Cyber Monday deals.
Even express networks are likely to see increased delays this holiday season as more retailers offer free two-day shipping to match Amazon’s Prime membership deals.
Even when ordering in-store pickup, Kanysha Smith of Miamisburg said for big sales she’d rather head to the store than shop online to stay on the safe side.
“I’ve tried the online thing before, not with Meijer but with another store. And what happened is I got it online and when I got to the store to pick it up they said that they were out of them because they said online wasn’t keeping up with basically the store,” Smith said.
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By the numbers
15: Percent increase in online spending this holiday season
18: Percent expected increase in Cyber Monday spending
$7.7: Billion shoppers will spend today
75: Million people that will shop today
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