Consumer holiday shopping habits have been in an ongoing state of evolution for years, but 2017 will mark a notable milestone. For the first time, more Americans will do their online holiday shopping with their phone than with any other device.
The Consumer Technology Association in its 2017 Pre-Black Friday Survey, finds that 61% of shoppers plan to use their smartphones to do online holiday shopping. Laptops, the long-time winner, will be used 54% of the time, while desktop PCs will be used 46%.
(The survey allowed respondents to select more than one device they would use for Black Friday shopping, which is why those percentages add up to 161%.)
Online shopping is becoming more important for retailers. The same CTA survey says 2017 will mark the first time that more Americans will shop on Cyber Monday (across all channels) than Black Friday — 51% say they plan to shop on Cyber Monday, versus just 38% on Black Friday.
Clothing and accessories are expected to be the most popular gift category this year, according to the CTA, with tech a fairly close second. The most popular tech item this will be video game consoles — likely led by the Nintendo Switch and SNES Classic Edition. Smartphones, like the iPhone X, are the second most popular tech product, followed by TVs.