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British Shoppers Set to Reject High Street and Rank Online Shopping Number One This Christmas

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London, UK – 9 November, 2005 – UK consumers will be doing their Christmas shopping online this year, according to the latest GMI Poll, which recently surveyed 17,000 consumers across 18 countries. The poll, powered by integrated market research solutions provider GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.), also revealed that Christmas shopping habits are quickly spreading to large, emerging consumer markets, such as China, India and Russia.

The survey confirms the global significance of online shopping this holiday season. The majority of UK consumers (61 percent) selected the Internet as their first destination for Christmas presents shopping, with speciality department stores being their second preference at only 22 percent. In the survey, the UK leads the pack of nations surveyed for online shopping – for example, 46 percent of U.S. respondents preferred online retail whilst countries like Denmark, Italy and Spain still prefer brick-and-mortar stores.

The Brits will be shopping late this year, with nearly half of them (48 percent) starting their purchases in December and 2 percent on Christmas Eve. In the survey, half of UK respondents say the promotion of Christmas merchandise in October is too early, indicating a counterproductive move on behalf of retailers.

The other trend GMI Poll results confirmed is how widespread festive shopping is becoming in developing markets with large populations such as China, India and Russia, where there is little to no tradition of celebrating Christmas or other Christian holidays. When asked how much they plan to spend compared to last year, Chinese, India and Russian respondents ranked top by saying they would spend more this year on Christmas gifts. By contrast, Western countries such as the Netherlands and the USA declared intentions of spending less.

Globally, Christmas is regarded as a time for family (47 percent) rather than a religious holiday (25 percent). For the Brits, the family tradition over the Christmas/holiday season is about staying at home (68 percent) rather than visiting relatives (25 percent).

Dietmar Walter, managing director, Europe for GMI, commented on the results: “Our poll confirms that for the Brits, like many other consumers in the world, online shopping has become a quicker and more convenient alternative to facing crowds on the street at this busy time of year. What’s interesting to me is the global power of marketing, with Christmas being celebrated as an end-of-year holiday with gifts in major developing consumer markets of totally different ethnicities, such as China, India and Russia”.

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About GMI Poll

GMI Poll quickly and accurately gathers international opinions about topical issues and critical global events, with real-time results available in as little as 24 hours. GMI Poll is the only survey that polls global opinions in real time, online, and with statistically accurate results.

About GMI

GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.) is the only company that provides comprehensive integrated solutions for global market intelligence for both market research firms and corporate market research departments at Global 2000 companies. Solutions include Net-MR®, a suite of software tools to manage and automate research throughout the project lifecycle, desktop analysis tools, 24x7x365 service bureau capabilities, and one of the world’s largest, highly profiled, double opt-in managed panels, spanning across 200 countries. In addition, GMI offers high-value, real-time enterprise feedback solutions for customer, partner and employee programs. Founded in 1999 with world headquartersin Seattle, Wash., GMI has operations on five continents.