What Americans Think About Online Shopping: Poll

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — Where do you do more of your shopping: online or in stores? A majority of Americans who shop online actually prefer to shop in a brick and mortar store, according to a recent NPR/Marist Poll. While 37 percent of online shoppers stick to the digital experience and prefer to buy online, 56 percent of online shoppers would rather go to a real store.

Not surprisingly, nearly seven in 10 Americans — 69 percent — said they have made an online purchase.

That includes 43 percent of U.S. residents who said they are regular online shoppers doing so daily (2 percent), at least once a week (16 percent) or at least once a month (25 percent).

And who is reaping the benefit of all that online purchasing?

It seems that Amazon has taken ahold of the shopping psyche of online buyers.

Almost two-thirds of Americans — 63 percent — said they have bought an item through Amazon, which is 92 percent of online shoppers.

More than four in 10 — or 44 percent — are Amazon Prime users which includes 30 percent who are themselves a Prime member and an additional 14 percent who share someone else’s membership.

According to the NPR/Marist Poll, this means that nearly two in three online shoppers — 64 percent — are either an Amazon Prime member (44 percent) or share a membership (20 percent).

Amazon is also trusted by online shoppers with their personal information, with 67 percent of shoppers having either a great deal (32 percent) or quite a lot of confidence (35 percent) in the company to protect their privacy and personal info.

Contrast that with the overall perception of online retailers.

The NPR/Marist Poll found that a majority of online shoppers (52 percent) said they either don’t have very much (38 percent) or have no confidence at all (14 percent) in most online retailers to keep secure the personal data of consumers.

All that said, Amazon is the first stop of 44 percent of online shoppers when they are making a purchase on the internet.

Fewer turn to a search engine such as Google (33 percent), the apps or websites of a specific store (10 percent), a specific brand online (6 percent) or an online marketplace such as eBay or Etsy (5 percent).

The NPR/Marist Poll surveyed 1,057 adults from April 25 through May 2. The adults were 18 years of age or older living in the contiguous United States. Results are plus or minus 3.4 percent.

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