Reports: Shoppers headed online to buy, save

According to a recent BuyVia study digital coupons are playing a growing role in ecommerce. Their research shows:

• 56% of shoppers find holiday coupons on retailer websites, 55% from rewards programs
• 42% are using promo codes online to save money
• Half will use coupons over the 2012 holidays

Researchers also found that most holiday shoppers (56%) want deals/coupons pushed to them via mobile device. Dollars-off deals are the most popular offer (preferred by 34$) followed by percentage off (31% prefer) and free shipping (29% prefer).

“With the rise of “showrooming” or price comparing in-store before making a purchase online, it’s no surprise that consumers are interested in receiving push notification deals in real time based on location,” said Norman Fong, CEO and Co-Founder of BuyVia.com.

Meanwhile, comScore notes that the week of December 10 saw shoppers spend $5 billion online. Three individual days have now hit the $1 billion mark – Black Friday ($1.042 billion), Cyber Monday ($1.465 billion) and Green Monday ($1.275 billion); to date the 2012 holidays have seen shoppers spend nearly $34 billion online.

“This past workweek saw four days surpass the billion dollar spending threshold during the heaviest five-day online shopping period on record,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “With this most recent week in the books, the peak spending period may now be in our rear-view-mirror – but the online holiday shopping season is not over yet. We should have one more headline day on Free Shipping Day this Monday the 17th as the procrastinators among us scramble to order gifts in time for Christmas next week. For the season-to-date, the growth rate based on corresponding days last year is 13 percent. But, with two extra shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, we still expect that the full season will realize a growth rate well north of 13 percent.”