Survey Says 89.8% of Shoppers Prefer Digital Catalogs

Despite the fact that 19 billion catalogs are printed and mailed in the United States each year, American consumers would prefer to receive their catalogs digitally. According to a new survey from CatalogSpree, 89.8% of respondents indicated that they would opt out of receiving some or all of their paper catalogs in the mail if they were available digitally.

Furthermore, 55.1% indicated that they would prefer all of their catalogs in digital form. These findings were based on the answers from 300 respondents.

Other survey findings related to catalog and offline shopping habits include:

  • 48% of respondents recycle their catalogs while 28% deposit to the trash.
  • 24% keep their catalogs, with 20-29 year olds being the most likely to hang onto them.
  • Men and women report nearly equal time spent shopping per month (13.4 vs. 12.5 hours), but men report spending twice as much on gas going shopping when driving to stores, $109 for men vs. $58 for women.