Trust in ecommerce is highest among 35-44 year-olds, survey finds, while over one in ten adults admit using a gift voucher given to them towards buying a present for someone else

London and Bonn, 3 December 2010. With Monday 6 December 2010 widely predicted to be the busiest online shopping day of the year, new online research has found that almost half (47 per cent) of British Internet users plan to shop online for presents this Christmas. Furthermore, over a quarter (27 per cent) of Internet users intend to do more than half their total Christmas shopping online.

Levels of trust in the safety of shopping online vary according to age and is highest among 35-44 year-olds (59 per cent) but lowest in over-55s (45 per cent), according to the online survey of nearly 2,000 members of the Great British public carried out by YouGov and Softwareload.co.uk, Deutsche Telekom’s online download portal for software applications. The results also showed that more than one in ten people (11 per cent)  admits to having bought presents for friends and family with gift vouchers that other people had bought for them!

“Shopping online is not only a convenient way to select Christmas presents but often provides better value,” said Dirk Lebzien, Head of Softwareload. “What is interesting is that 25-44 year-olds – those who have grown accustomed to online shopping and have disposable income – are the demographic that both trusts the Internet most and uses it most widely for their Christmas shopping.”

57 per cent of 25-34 year-old Internet users and 58 per cent of 35-44 year-olds will shop online for Christmas presents this year, Softwareload’s study found. In fact, 40 per cent of 25-34 year-olds will do “more than half” their Christmas shopping online this year, more than twice that of the over 55s (19 per cent).

“GB consumers of all ages are becoming more comfortable with the concept of shopping online and it is becoming a real time and money saver for people at Christmas,” Lebzien added. “Many online e-tailers now even offer gift-wrapping and delivery services that make the end-to-end shopping experience that much more attractive in the busy run-up to Christmas.”

Internet users in the North of England (41 per cent) will be shopping online for presents the least this Christmas, while the Welsh will lead the e-commerce charge with 52 per cent shopping online this Christmas.

Although visiting the High Street or malls is still the preferred method of shopping for Christmas presents, men (16 per cent) are more likely to prefer to instantly download content – such as e-books, software, music and films – over a trip to the shops than women (11 per cent).

“Although a trip to the shops is an integral part of the retail experience, there is a cultural shift occurring when it comes to products that can be directly downloaded – such as music, movies, e-books, software packages and games – over shopping for the same products in-store,” Lebzien concluded.