More And More Santas Are Shopping On Company Time - Web Hosting Provider Explains

Although you and your web host are understandably thrilled about the unprecedented success of this year’s holiday shopping season, employers of office workers across the country do not share your enthusiasm. Much of the Cyber Monday shopping (and holiday shopping in general) is done from the workplace. According to one estimate, the amount of shopping conducted from work on Cyber Monday may have resulted in millions of dollars in loss productivity for businesses whose employees spent time surfing the web for deals instead of working.

Strapped for time and eager for bargains, America’s workforce is showing a growing affinity for online shopping at work - let your web hosting provider explain.

About 58 percent of office workers with internet access (or more than 68 million people) will shop online for holiday gifts from work this year, according to a survey conducted by Bigresearch for Shop.org. That’s up from about 51 percent last year and 45 percent in 2005. If those employees spend an average of 12 minutes shopping online at the office, the cumulative cost to employers in lost productivity could hit $488 million. Men are more likely than women to shop from work and 73 percent of young adults (ages 18-24) are expected to do some online shopping from work this holiday season.

“Since the average American spends 60 percent of their waking hours at work, it’s no wonder that so many people use time during their work hours to do their holiday shopping,” said Dan Wheeler, VP of Workplace Media. Studies show that employers’ attitudes about online shopping are evolving, generally in favor of giving more leeway to employees. “Where many companies once blocked access to high-volume shopping sites, they now use threshold software that simply limits the amount of time an employee can spend on such sites,” noted Susan Larson, VP of global threat analysis and research for SurfControl, which makes filtering software for workplaces.

John A Challenger, chief executive office of Challenger and Gray, doesn’t recommend that businesses punish employees for a few minutes of online shopping. “Technology has blurred the lines between work and personal life, and if employees carry some of the work home they should be forgiven for taking care of some personal business at work,” he said. “To retain great employees, it is important to invest in a workplace culture to create an environment where people want to stay. Giving them a little freedom is good for morale.”

“When you spend 40 hours a week at work and are totally strapped for time during the holiday season, it is no surprise that employees turn to their office computers to get some holiday shopping done,” said Claire Simmers, Ph.D, co-author of “The Internet and Workplace Transformation.” Simmers contends that shopping on company time is a trend that employers would be wise to discuss with their workers explicitly to avoid potential problems.

“Employers need to accept that their workforce might be doing their holiday shopping online at the office and if they don’t already have a written policy, they need to create one and share it with their employees.” Simmers also stressed the importance of employees using sound judgment when shopping at work, where keystrokes can be monitored by their company. 

Ridiculously high gas prices will result in increased workplace web shopping this year. Why waste precious gas rushing to the mall on your lunch break when you can fulfill your family’s Christmas wishes with the click of a mouse from the comfort of your office?   No matter how you slice it, more online shopping is good news for ecommerce owners whether it’s conducted from home, work, an island resort or a chalet in the mountains. And the record breaking pace of this year’s online shopping has the potential to put ecommerce owners in a very lucrative position. Aren’t you glad that you and your web host worked so hard on the development of a winning holiday strategy?

 

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