NPD Group finds shoppers keen on brick-and-mortar stores in mid-October

Casual Living Staff -- Casual Living, 10/30/2012 10:06:00 AM

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. - For the week ending Oct. 20, the NPD Group's Shopping Activity Weekly Holiday Trends report showed 57% of U.S. consumers went shopping at brick-and-mortar retail stores.
But more impressive was that shopping incidence for mass merchants was at 32%, the largest level of shopping at any channel. By comparison, shopping incidence at national chain stores was 5%, and 4% for department stores, apparel specialty stores and home hardware stores.
NPD Group's Shopping Activity Weekly Holiday Trends is a special report that will follow the weekly holiday shopping trends over the course of the 2012 holiday retail season. For it, the company fields an online study to 4,750 U.S. consumers daily. It captures brick-and-mortar shopping behavior and online purchase behavior in general merchandise channels, including purchases of categories from apparel to entertainment to toys and video games. It excludes the following channels: grocery, drug, gas, convenience and restaurant.
For the Oct. 20th week, the survey found that about 65% of shopping visits to a brick-and-mortar store resulted in a purchase. That trend remained steady throughout the weeks ending Sept. 29 - Oct. 20.
Also noteworthy among the weekly report's findings was that the channels with the highest conversion rates included warehouse clubs at 88%, mass merchants at 75% and home hardware stores at 64%.
Over the week, online buying visits accounted for 16.3% of all buying visits -- no change from the prior week.