While Consumers Started Holiday Shopping Earlier This Year, Many Consumers Plan to Wait Until the End of the Season to Finish Their Shopping

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 20, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- PriceGrabber®, a part of Experian, just released the results of its last minute holiday shopping survey. This survey includes responses from 4,000 online consumers collected between Oct. 4 and Dec. 7, 2010. Despite the consumer trend to start holiday shopping earlier this year, survey data reveals many consumers plan to do last minute shopping. Deals and busy schedules are the most popular motivators for shopping at the end of the season and these purchases include both big and small ticket items.

Holiday shopping starts early and ends late in the season

A previous PriceGrabber survey revealed many consumers are planning to shop early in order to spread out the cost of holiday gift-giving this year. While consumers are shopping early this year, survey data also found that many consumers are still planning to do some shopping late in the season. Forty-three percent of consumers reveal that they plan to shop last minute (between December 21 and December 24) for holiday gifts this year. Fifty-seven percent of consumers do not plan to shop last minute for holiday gifts.

Deals and busy schedules influence last minute gift purchasing

When the 43 percent of consumers that are planning to shop for holiday gifts between December 21 and December 24 were asked why they shop last minute, finding the best deals and busy schedules were cited as the most popular reasons. Forty-one percent of late bird shoppers revealed one of their reasons for waiting until the end of the season is they can find the best discounts. Thirty-eight percent revealed that one of the reasons they wait until the end of the season is they are busy and unable to finish all their holiday shopping before December 21st. Thirty percent of consumers reveal that one of their reasons is they procrastinate.

"Many consumers started their holiday shopping early this year, motivated by early retailer discounts and efforts to spread out holiday purchases into monthly budgets. Survey data also reveals that consumers are planning to delay some of their holiday gift purchasing until the end of the season," stated Graham Jones, Vice President of Merchant Accounts at PriceGrabber. "While many consumers are motivated to wait until the last minute so they can find the lowest price, shoppers need to make sure to check product reviews to ensure the product they are purchasing is exactly what they need. Mobile applications make it very easy to evaluate products through product reviews and expert reviews."

Consumers plan to purchase both big and small ticket items last minute this year

PriceGrabber's recent survey also asked last minute shoppers what items they plan to purchase. Fifty-two percent of shoppers who plan to shop late in the season revealed that they plan to purchase both big and small ticket items. Thirty percent of late bird shoppers revealed that they plan to purchase only small ticket items. Twelve percent of end of season shoppers plan to shop last minute for all the gifts on their list.

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About PriceGrabber.com

PriceGrabber, a part of Experian®, is a leading online shopping site with more than 23 million unique shoppers monthly. At PriceGrabber, savvy shoppers can instantly find and compare millions of unique products and services across 25 categories with more than 11,000 merchants. Compare products side by side to find the right retailers at the best prices within popular categories, such as Digital Cameras, Electronics, Computers, Clothing, Books, TVs and more. PriceGrabber provides shoppers with the right product from the right merchant at the best price anytime, anywhere. Visit us at http://www.pricegrabber.com.

About Experian

Experian® is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients in more than 90 countries. The company helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit report and credit score and protect against identity theft.

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended March 31, 2010, was $3.9 billion. Experian employs approximately 15,000 people in 40 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; Costa Mesa, California; and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

For more information, visit http://www.experianplc.com.

Experian and the Experian marks used herein are service marks or registered trademarks of Experian Information Solutions, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE PriceGrabber.com