Portland, US.A. — The holiday shopping season is nearly in full swing and survey results announced by CashStar, the digital gifting and incentives company, show that online Americans are shopping from their mobile devices in mass numbers, sometimes from unexpected places.

The survey found that more than 38 million online adult Americans admit to having shopped online while on the toilet. It also found that convergence is happening in unexpected ways with almost 17 million shopping via a mobile device while standing in the retailer’s physical store. The survey, which was conducted online nationwide by Harris Interactive on behalf of CashStar from November 6-8, 2012 among 2,104 U.S. online adults aged 18 and older, examined the strange or odd places U.S. adults have used computers or mobile devices to shop online.

“Smartphones and tablets have enabled consumers to shop and gift on-the-go in more ways and places than ever before,” said David Stone, co-founder and CEO of CashStar. “The retailers who have been paying attention and catering to where and how consumers want to shop by mobile-optimizing their e-commerce sites and offering mobile eGift Cards will reap the rewards this holiday season and have a jump on the competition going into 2013.

Retailers on the CashStar platform whose eGift Card website is optimized for mobile have seen 3,700 percent more sales from mobile devices this year than retailers whose sites are not mobile-optimized. Why? Because the experience is so much better, faster, and easier for consumers.”

The CashStar Mobile Online Shopping Survey also found some other surprising shopping trends:

• The strangest places consumers have shopped? Bringing physical and online retail together – More west coasters indicated that they were inclined to do this than people in other regions of the country.
  • Do not disturb -Men were more inclined to shop while on the toilet than women.
  • Shopping and driving – Despite the danger, more than four million Americans have still shopped online while driving a car.
  • Just checking email at the conference table? – More than nine million Americans admitted they have secretly shopped while in a business meeting.
• Milk, bread, and that new flat screen –More than seven million Americans have filled their grocery and online shopping carts at the same time; they have shopped from their mobile device while at the grocery store.

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of CashStar from November 6-8, 2012 among 2,104 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. Calculation based on U.S. Census Bureau’s 2011 Census, which estimates there are 237,744,632 million adults ages 18+ residing in the United States: 237.7M  x  0.16 = 38M have shopped online while on the toilet

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