Consoles top electronics gift list for Christmas

Videogames consoles are set to be the most frequently requested Christmas gift in America this year, according to a survey of more than 1000 shoppers by market researches Rockhopper Research and Peanut Labs.

Co-operating with the Market Research Global Alliance (MRGA), the research was conducted on November 19 and 20, ahead of the infamous "Black Friday" in the US. The survey found that 83 per cent of shoppers were intending to buy at least one electronics gift at Christmas, with 60 per cent of those intending to purchase a videogames console.

A MP3 player or iPod was the next most popular type of electronics gift at 54 per cent, followed by a camera or camcorder (45 per cent) and a laptop computer (41 per cent).

Videogame consoles also topped the list in terms of brand importance, with 88 per cent of customers indicating it was a factor in their buying decision. The overall figure for brand importance was just 66 per cent, with mobile/smartphones the second most important at 78 per cent and desktop computers at 67 per cent.

A total of 66 per cent of customers indicated they would be buying their gifts from a physical store, leaving 33 per cent to shop online. Online shoppers though were found to be likely to buy more electronics goods than those shopping offline.

The full CEST 2009 (Consumer Electronic Shopping Trends) report can be downloaded from the Rockhopper website.