Online Shoppers Are on the Recline This Holiday Season: The Couch and Bed Among Top Shopping Sites, PC Favorite Cybershopping Tool

NEW YORK, Dec. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- With less than three weeks until Christmas, the majority of U.S. consumers (87 percent) plan to avoid crowded stores and malls and plan to cybershop from the comfort and convenience of home, according to a new survey by Verizon.

Of these stay-at-home shoppers seeking to check off holiday shopping lists while reducing stress, 21 percent plan to shop online while relaxing on their couch, 8 percent will shop while in bed, and 50 percent will do so while at their home-office desk.

When compared with all consumers, the preferences of digitally-savvy, borderless consumers are somewhat different.  More of them (31 percent) plan to make purchases while on their couch, or in bed (9 percent).  Slightly less (45 percent) will do so from their home-office desk.

(NOTE: The complete results of the survey, including color infographics, can be obtained at www.borderlessconsumer.com.  All the tables and graphics are embeddable and downloadable.)

The findings are part of the Verizon FiOS Innovation Index: Borderless Lifestyle Survey.  Other key findings include:

• Thirty-three percent of all U.S. consumers and 37 percent of borderless consumers intend to use a PC to purchase holiday gifts online.
• Six percent of all consumers and 10 percent of borderless consumers plan to use tablets and smartphones to purchase holiday gifts this December.

Cyber Monday sales nationwide hit a record $1.5 billion this year, driven by the growing number of consumers embracing a digital "borderless lifestyle," enabled by Internet-connected devices that allow customers to connect and accomplish what they want or need to do, whenever they wish, wherever they are, using the device that they prefer.

In previously released results of the Verizon FiOS Innovation Index[1], 52 percent of U.S. consumers said high-speed Internet access is their most important home convenience.  This is especially true among the most active online users – borderless consumers – the nearly 40 percent of Americans who own PCs, smartphones or tablets, and have an Internet-connectable device with them at all times.  (NOTE: [1]Survey conducted in September 2012 by Harris Interactive on behalf of Verizon among 2,292 U.S. adults)

"For many of us, the holidays can be as stressful as they are joyful," said Eric Bruno, vice president of FiOS strategy and development for Verizon. "Today's fast home-Internet speeds, combined with the multitude of connectable devices, are helping to relieve some of the yuletide pressure. This is why also many of the consumers surveyed will do at least some of their shopping online -- and although cybershopping is fundamentally driven by convenience, our survey found it's increasingly about comfort, too."

Online Holiday Shopping/E-Commerce Findings

The survey also found strong interest in life-enhancing areas such as telemedicine services and future entertainment-enriching interactive TV technologies.

Emerging TV Technologies
Strong Interest in New Television and Second Screen Content

As 2012 comes to a close, a slew of new home network-connected devices like smart TVs, Blu-ray players, and second- screen devices like tablets and smartphones, are increasingly popular this holiday gift season.  As more of these gadgets are in consumers' hands and homes, new interactive content and advertising opportunities are emerging for the media industry. 

Smart Home Attitudes

U.S. consumers are becoming more aware and interested in Smart Home services that allow them to remotely control lights, appliances, heating and cooling, while keeping an eye on their home with real-time video surveillance, and actively monitor their household energy consumption.  A survey conducted in September 2012 by Harris Interactive on behalf of Verizon found that the ability to conduct these activities anytime they wish, from any location, is highly popular among all U.S. consumers, with even greater benefit perception among borderless consumers.

Remote Health Options

With the cold and flu season upon us and visits to the doctor's office sometimes being difficult due to winter weather, the Verizon FiOS Innovation Index took a look at how people might make use of broadband powered telehealth services.  The majority of U.S. online adults indicated their desire to leverage the power of the home broadband network, connected devices, and the reach of the Internet to conveniently increase their access to medical professionals for routine matters and chronic care for themselves and members of their family.

Finally, the Index detected one holiday season challenge that even the most advanced technologies cannot address.  When asked to choose between an extended visit at (1) the fully connected home of a relative they don't care for, or (2) the technologically barren home of a relative they are fond of – all U.S. consumers, even borderless consumers, overwhelmingly chose a week in "cyber-ian tech" exile over the alternative.

The Verizon FiOS Innovation Index: Borderless Lifestyle Survey was conducted in the U.S. on behalf of Verizon by Harris Interactive from November 16-20, 2012, among 2,324 adults aged 18 and over.  This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with more than 94 million retail customers nationwide.  Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, including all of the Fortune 500.  A Dow 30 company with $111 billion in 2011 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 188,000.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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SOURCE Verizon