They’re also more likely to give to charity and care about the environment
As the Christmas shopping rush gets underway, new data from Exponential Interactive reveals that people who get it done early are more likely to have messy love lives.
Digital intelligence company Exponential @exponentialinc analysed the anonymous behaviour of almost 3.4 million Britons shopping online in October. It revealed those shopping for Christmas were 49% more likely than the average British internet user to be separated from a spouse, 3.6x more likely to be researching divorce and 2.7x more likely to be researching family law.
However, they are looking to remedy their situation, being 4.2x more likely to research family marriage counselling. Early Christmas shoppers are also twice as likely to be into online dating as the average British internet user.
“People experiencing marriage problems face a radical and unanticipated loss of control in life,” says Dr Simon Hampton, Psychology Lecturer at the University of East Anglia. “Consequently, they subconsciously look to exercise control and order in other areas of their lives, particularly in the family domain – such as getting Christmas shopping done early and efficiently. Known as the ‘locus of control’ this includes other activities such as keeping a car clean if the house is a mess or looking for bargains when one also has to be generous.”
Cassandra Mcintosh, Insights Analyst at Exponential said: “Christmas and shopping can be socially stressful for consumers and filled with unrealistic pressures. Advertisers that provide comic relief can be a welcome change from the glitzy, overly-perfect depictions of Christmas. A great example being Harvey Nichol’s ‘Sorry, I Spent it On Myself’ campaign and gag gift collection.”
Overall, early Christmas shoppers are most likely to be in their thirties and forties with an annual household income over £40,000. They’re 31% more likely to have children – probably quite young.
Early Christmas shoppers also more selfless and environmentally conscious
Early-bird Christmas shoppers are nearly 10x more likely than average person to be interested in charity/non-profits and over 12x more likely to be looking at environmental-related content. They’re 6x more interested in solar power and 3x more into sustainable living.
This softer side of early Christmas shoppers is accentuated by the fact they’re over 4x more likely to look at spiritual and religious content online and 6x more into researching inspirational quotes.
Mcintosh says: “Because early Xmas shoppers are much more likely to be concerned about others and the environment, October provides a great opportunity for charities and other ‘cause’ marketers to use online advertising to target people most prone to donating money or time.”