Eager U.S. shoppers value safe experience -survey

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, consumers planning their holiday shopping this coming season are concerned about precautions retail stores are taking to keep shoppers safe, an Oracle Retail survey on Monday showed.

And for the first time, Oracle saw about 16 percent of the respondents indicating that their holiday experience would be supported by curbside pickup.

This report produced by Jillian Kitchener.

Even though the holiday season will be uniquely ‘different’ this year… with health precautions on the minds of many Americans… people still want to do what they’ve always done - shop.

That’s according to a survey published Monday by Oracle Retail, which looked at over 5,000 consumers in the U.S. and abroad.

Senior vice president of Oracle Retail, Mike Webster, said customers are eager to open their wallets amid this global health crisis.

“About 60 percent of the respondents in the survey indicated that they plan to spend about the same, if not a little more, this holiday season ahead.

And what they told us is that about 20 percent intend to do all of that shopping in a physical retailing store environment.

About half intend to use both physical and digital channels." About 79% of shoppers surveyed said it was important to see masks being worn… and the majority said visible cleaning efforts as well as reduced occupancy was key.

There are also shoppers who won't step into a store.

So a new trend of curbside pickup is taking shape: WEBSTER: And for the first time, we saw about 16 percent of the respondents indicating that their holiday experience would be supported by curbside pickup.” San Francisco's Param Sharma is taking advantage of the curbside option: "Too many people inside of a store makes me uneasy, so I'd much prefer outside open air environment.

And it's more convenient to just pick it up on the app, order it on the app, pull up curbside, and have them hand it to you.” To meet demand - whether in store, online or curbside - retailers will need to maintain inventory going into the holiday shopping season.

The Oracle survey found that 47% of shoppers said out-of-stock merchandise topped their list for a bad shopping experience.