Signal Survey Suggests Amazon Will Have Very Happy Holidays This Year

The latest consumer survey from Signal shows just how dominant of a position Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN has established in the U.S. holiday shopping market. But it also provides some reasons for hope for competing retailers.

Incredibly, 42 percent of the more than 1,500 consumers surveyed reported Amazon will be their primary destination for holiday shopping. EMarketer estimates that overall 2016 holiday season retail sales will increase by 1.8 percent compared to 2015. However, e-commerce holiday sales will surge 13.3 percent this year.

The survey also revealed some useful statistics that all retailers should know as they prepare for this year’s holiday shopping season. The most common way for consumers to browse for gifts is on a desktop/laptop (36 percent), but the most common way for them to purchase gifts remains in-store (33 percent). About 20 percent of shoppers browse for gifts on mobile devices, but few actually use smartphones (8 percent) or tablets (7 percent) as their primary way to purchase holiday gifts.

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Although competing with Amazon may seem like an impossible endeavor, the survey revealed retailers don’t have to beat Amazon to have an exceptional holiday sales season.

“Retailers don’t have to be Amazon to succeed, as 40 percent of customers say they primarily shop elsewhere for holiday gifts,” Signal CEO Mike Sands explained.

Signal found that the top reason consumers like Amazon is because it is easy, so retailers should think about ways they could make their customer experience as easy as possible from start to finish.

Disclosure: The author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.