PayPal's 2007 Holiday Survey

The survey found discrepancies between men and women when it came to who tops their shopping lists. While both men and women agree that their significant other is the most difficult person to shop for during the holiday season, 34 percent of males said they actually enjoyed shopping for their partner, compared to just 17 percent of women. However, females are 30 percent more likely than males to enjoy shopping for their kids.

When it comes to receiving gifts, the survey found that 43 percent of women would prefer to receive a gift from Oprah Winfrey over Ellen Degeneres (20 percent) or Martha Stewart (8 percent). Men, on the other hand, said they would most prefer to be on talk-show host Jay Leno’s gift list this year (19 percent), followed by David Letterman (18%).

The Nielsen survey also revealed that more shoppers are playing it safe this holiday season by buying gift cards, rather than purchasing tailored gifts for their loved ones. In fact, 64 percent of shoppers said they plan to give gift cards. But recipients don’t seem to mind. Fifty seven percent of respondents said they would actually prefer to receive money or a gift card in place of the traditional present.

As gift cards gain popularity, online shopping continues to play a major role in holiday retail sales. According to the survey, consumers plan to spend roughly $412 online during the holiday gift giving season, and conduct an average of 40 percent of their holiday shopping online, compared to 28.9 percent in 2006.1

“Holiday shoppers are more comfortable shopping online this year than ever before,” said Susan Phillips, PayPal’s Online Purchase Pro. “Consumers have chosen to swap the in-store rush for the online experience, citing convenience, time savings, less stress and better prices as the top reasons to shop online.”

Additional findings from PayPal’s Holiday Shopping Survey include:

• 44 percent of men versus 26 percent of women considered themselves last-minute shoppers.
• Men would prefer to meet Jennifer Aniston (27%) under the mistletoe rather than Angelina Jolie (17%). Only 4% of men wanted to meet Britney Spears under the mistletoe.
• George Clooney was the number one male that females (29%) would like to meet under the mistletoe this year, followed by Johnny Depp (22%) and Brad Pitt (11%).
• 67% of people expect to spend the same amount on holiday gifts this year as they did last year.

The PayPal Holiday Survey was conducted by Nielsen Customized Research from October 1, 2007 to October 12, 2007 via email invitation to online panelists. The total sample size was 1000 respondents with quotas to ensure sample distribution by age and gender according to the online population.