Online Platforms Are the Number One Purchase Channels for Christmas Gifts

Happy holidays! Christmas is a time for family gatherings and reflection, but let’s face it, gifts are the icing on the cake. Take the online product category Flowers & Gifts, for example: In the UK, U.S. and Germany most of its revenues are generated in December.

In a consumer survey, Statista Consumer Insights asked respondents where they prefer to buy holiday gifts. Of all the options, online shopping was the most frequent answer.

Three-Quarters of Consumers Buy Holiday Gifts Online

In three core eCommerce countries, most consumers said they prefer to buy their Christmas gifts at an online store. Among the three selected, Germany had the highest percentage (75%), followed closely by the United Kingdom (74%) and the United States (64%).

On top of that, the second most cited channel where consumers typically buy their gifts is department stores, the shares of which are well behind online stores, at around 30 percentage points below.

This shows how immense of a relevance online channels have for Christmas gift purchases. On a consumer level, eCommerce has many benefits, as users don’t need to leave their homes to buy products, they can do it around the clock and fit shopping into busy work schedules.

One-Stop Shopping Most Popular in Germany

Among the consumers who buy holiday gifts via eCommerce, some prefer one-stop shopping to shopping on multiple platforms. German consumers are the most likely to say they prefer to buy their gifts on one platform, at 61%. Players like Amazon that offer a large variety of products facilitate this type of shopping behavior.

Over half of U.S. consumers chose buying at one platform (55%) over multiple ones (35%), while UK consumers are equally as likely to buy at one platform (46%) as at a variety of platforms (46%). German consumers are least likely to buy from multiple platforms (31%).

The survey results highlight how closely intertwined eCommerce and holiday shopping have become. Not only do monthly revenue shares for typical gift categories spike towards the end of the year, but the consumer perspective emphasizes that the relationship is mutually beneficial. Consumer preferences for one-stop shopping further indicate that generalist retailers like Amazon are in a winning position by catering to the need of having a wide product selection at one place.