Poll: Holiday Shoppers Eager to Purchase Green Gifts

"When consumers had the opportunity, they purchased gifts to fit their social conscience," said John Rittenhouse, a KPMG retail partner and national leader for Operations Risk Management.

"The 'green-quotient' and a product's country of origin have become important reputational concerns for shoppers, due mainly to recent publicity on the environment and manufacturing issues in emerging markets," he said.

Some 88 percent of the survey respondents, Rittenhouse said, were very concerned about the environment, 74 percent indicated they buy environmentally friendly products, 60 percent were willing to pay more for such items, and 55 percent say they make a special effort to patronize retailers with a "green" reputation.

Shoppers in a Philadelphia area mall. (Photo by Gina Rubel)

In addition, 40 percent of consumers said they checked the country of origin on potential gifts, with 31 percent using such information to decide against a purchase.

While 79 percent of those decisions not to buy an item involved products from China, toys were involved more than half (52 percent) of the time.

Money appeared to be more of an issue this year. While an average of 36 percent of shoppers have previously reported spending more each year during similar surveys from 2003 to 2006, just 30 percent of respondents in 2007 said they spent more than the preceding holiday season on gifts.

Mark Larson, KPMG's global leader for the retail sector, said the survey shows that well-stocked retailers with a customer friendly return policy continued to attract business. He observed that 76 percent of shoppers said their spending decisions were influenced most when a store had the item they expected, while 58 percent cited a store's return policy as influential.

By contrast, 47 percent said newspaper ads affected where they shopped, and 43 percent said a coupon figured into the decision, the survey said.

Rittenhouse said, "The KPMG survey respondents said they shopped basically at the same time they do every year, and sales or early promotions did little to change their patterns."

"Even though price remains the most significant driver to attract customers initially, busy shoppers told us they went to the retailer where experience told them they could get what they wanted," said Larson.

The survey, designed and managed by The Gordman Group, was conducted randomly by telephone with 815 shoppers. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percent, at a 95 percent confidence level.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved.