NEW YORK: We may still be at the tail end of summer, but already a comprehensive survey of US holiday season shopping intentions has been released – and it’s good news for Amazon, in particular.

Think tank Fung Global Retail & Technology (FGRT) polled 1,048 internet-using US adults in mid-August and found three-quarters of them expect to buy gifts from Amazon later this year, rising to 83% among those who expect to shop online and 90% of Amazon Prime members.

And in a sign that e-commerce is on course to be a more popular retail channel than physical stores this holiday season, the survey found that 82% of consumers expect to buy holiday gifts online compared with 77% who will shop in physical stores.

This gap increases among younger consumers, as nearly 85% of those aged 30 to 44 expect to shop online compared with 76% who expect to use physical stores.

The main reason motivating consumers to shop online is to avoid the holiday crowds, the survey found, while the top reason they cite for buying in-store is to touch, see or try out products in person.

As shown, Amazon is expected to attract 74.8% of all holiday gift shoppers this year, but around half of consumers also anticipate shopping at Target (48.2%) and Walmart (47.6%).

Kohl’s (28.7%), Best Buy (24.6%), Macy’s (19.8%), T.J. Maxx (19.5%), Costco (18.0%), eBay (17.1%) and JCPenney (15.9%) round out FGRT’s top ten retail destinations.

In terms of what drives consumers to shop with a particular retail brand, product quality is the top factor, followed by prices, location, good availability of products and breadth of range.

Interestingly, the survey also revealed that rapid delivery for online orders and click-and-collect options are not that important to the survey respondents.

“Some brick-and-mortar retailers may be counting on their buy-online, collect-in-store services to fend off the Amazon threat this holiday season,” said Deborah Weinswig, FGRT’s Managing Director.

“But consumers rank such collection services low as a factor … when choosing where to shop: quality, price, location and availability will be the principal drivers for consumers as they decide where to shop this holiday season,” she added.

Finally, the FGRT survey found that 22.7% of respondents expect to spend more on the holidays this year compared with 2016, while 21.3% expect to spend less.

“The results suggest solid, though probably unspectacular, retail growth this holiday season,” Weinswig concluded.

Data sourced from Fung Global Retail & Technology; additional content by WARC staff