Holiday Shopping Poll: Ho Ho Ho Or Humbug?
This past week, Acumen Marketing Research conducted a one-question poll on LinkedIn to determine member feelings towards holiday shopping
. The brief online survey raised the following question:Which of the following best describes how you feel about shopping during the holiday season?
Respondents were given the following five choices:
Excited
Pleased
Neutral
Stressed
Overwhelmed
Results indicate that, unfortunately, shopping during this holiday season seems to be spreading more angst than joy! A full quarter of all respondents (25%) reported being stressed and another six percent are already overwhelmed! On the other hand, just one in seven are excited about shopping, and an equal proportion is merely pleased. Overall responses obtained from 360 participants polled between December 1st and 7th, 2010, are shown below.
Excited.............. 14%
Pleased............. 14%
Neutral.............. 39%
Stressed............ 25%
Overwhelmed....... 6%
While there were some significant differences across the age spectrum, responses did not vary as much by age as one might expect. Younger respondents, age 18 to 34, were twice as likely to consider themselves excited than those in older age segments. And older respondents were disproportionately represented in the neutral category. But the ratios of respondents in the other classifications were surprisingly comparable by age.
Age..................18-34.....35-54....55+
Excited............. . 21%..... 10%.... 10%
Pleased............... 13%..... 19%.... 14%
Neutral................ 39%..... 36%.... 52%
Stressed...............21%..... 28%.... 21%
Overwhelmed.......... 6%...... 7%..... 3%
Interestingly, men and women are experiencing different levels of stress in relation to holiday shopping -- at least in early December when the poll was taken. As shown below, women were more than twice as likely than men to feel overwhelmed (10% vs. 4%) and were significantly more likely to fall on the negative side of the spectrum, as well (38% vs. 28%). Meanwhile, men were more apt to classify their feelings as neutral, 46% to 33%.
Gender........Women.....Men
Excited.............13%...... 13%
Pleased.............16%...... 13%
Neutral............. 33%...... 46%
Stressed........... 28%...... 24%
Overwhelmed..... 10%....... 4%
But cheer up, holiday shoppers, poll results were not all gloom and doom. In fact, some of the open-ended comments we received even shed some light on how consumers could potentially counteract some of their shopping anxiety. One respondent offered that his method of battling the stress is simply employing a little advanced planning and utilizing time management skills:
I like having a plan before ever leaving and setting aside way more than enough time to get though it. It takes longer to be extra leisurely, but I prefer that over the stress of trying to do too much at once. We all have stress we cannot avoid, why add to it unnecessarily?
And although we prefer to remain unbiased as market researchers, we must admit we were quite pleased to learn our one-question poll itself had brightened the spirits of at least one female respondent:
Interesting. I was feeling stressed about the holidays until you asked. I forgot how much fun it is to pick out just the right gift!
So please do try to enjoy yourself while shopping this holiday season. And if you find yourself feeling a bit stressed, remember the Acumen one-question holiday poll and realize that you are by no means alone!
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