Internet to Play Major Role in Money-Saving New Year’s Resolutions
Performics recently revealed the findings from its “2009 Online Buyer Economic Trend Study” which includes a widespread emphasis on saving money in the New Year. Consumers seem set to utilize the Internet to help them toward keeping to this goal.
“Saving more money” was a New Year’s resolution for 41 percent of respondents, followed by “enjoying life” with 38 percent, “losing weight” with 38 percent and “debt reduction or elimination” with 36 percent.
Overall, 56 percent of respondents said they didn’t save as much money as planned in 2009, with 61 percent of women saying this and 48 percent of men saying the same.
Of this group, 55 percent intend to save more money in 2010, as 66 percent of women and 44 percent of men declared this resolution. Performics found that younger respondents were more focused on saving money than their older counterparts.
In helping them toward this end, 45 percent of U.S. online buyers said that the Internet was where they feel they would have the best chance at finding the best deals, followed by 34 percent who said they would find the best deals at actual in-store retail locations.
Word-of-mouth received a 5 percent nod of confidence, followed by catalogs with 2 percent, other channels with 1 percent and 13 percent saying none of the above.
Free shipping was the Web site feature that would best increase the likelihood that a U.S. online buyer would purchase from a site, as it received 85 percent of the response, followed by free return shipping with 75 percent.
Promoting an offer or discount on the homepage received a 66 percent response, while consumer-generated product reviews received a 53 percent response, a rewards or points program received a 47 percent response and interactive product information received a 40 percent response.
Forty-eight percent of respondents said they would utilize the Internet to perform research as it relates to keeping financially disciplined, according to the company.
“We discovered that nearly one third (29 percent) of respondents plan to use the Internet to track the progress they’re making with their resolutions,” said Michael Kahn, senior vice president at Performics.
The study was conducted by ROI Research and involved monthly surveys from April through December 2009.
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