A study of consumer external search strategies pertaining to Christmas shopping

Christmas gift-giving is a neglected topic by social scientists. This study explores whether consumers adopt information-use strategies while Christmas shopping. After reviewing the literature on external search and gift-buying, a conceptual framework examines how consumers might select search strategies. One hundred ninety-one people were asked about their use of eleven different external information sources. Nonhierarchical cluster analysis revealed that three types of information searchers existed. These were: selective searchers (use mainly print), non-searchers (use no sources) and eclectic searchers (use almost all sources). Stepwise discriminant analysis revealed that eight lifestyle, shopping, media use and demographic variables were good discriminators among clusters. With just these eight variables retained, discriminant analysis accurately classified 74% of consumers into their correct clusters. This classification rate was validated using the split-sample procedure. The differences between clusters were then interpreted more fully.