Americans are shoppers. On the typical day, Americans spend an average of 24 minutes purchasing goods and services – a figure that doesn’t include any time spent traveling to a place to shop. This is more than people spend relaxing and thinking (19 minutes per day on average) and about half the time people spend socializing and communicating with others (46 minutes).
Most Americans (72%) are undaunted by the choice of so many products in the marketplace, with just 19% feeling overwhelmed by it.
Our survey finds that most Americans (59%) find themselves shopping for things such as groceries at least a couple of times per week, while the remaining 41% shop about once a week or less often. And Americans are fairly evenly split as to whether or not shopping is a chore. Some 42% say they enjoy shopping while nearly half (48%) characterizing it as “just something they have to do.” Some people (22%) would shop more if they had more time for it and half (49%) of Americans would shop more if they had more money to spend. Close to one-third (29%) would do more shopping if there were more stores nearby.
This report presents a portrait of how many online users turn to the internet for research, browsing, and transacting, as well as people’s attitudes about shopping online. Although there is wide use and acceptance of the internet for shopping, worries about sending personal or credit card information online keeps some people – mainly low-income Americans – from doing transactions online.