• by Ross Fadner , December 9, 2003

More than a quarter of all employed adults who have access to the Internet at work will be doing some of their holiday shopping online during work hours, finds new research released Monday by Yahoo! Shopping.

The survey's results suggest that some personal multitasking at work is becoming more acceptable in corporate America. In fact, more than half (56 percent) of office workers who plan to shop online from work this holiday season said their bosses are fully aware of it.

Results also show that 36 percent of active online holiday shoppers from work fall in the 35-44 demographic, and men and women are equally likely to be found shopping online from work. Twenty-nine percent of men and twenty-six percent of women replied affirmatively to holiday shopping online.

By region, one-third of working adults in the Northeast will likely shop online from work, while in the South, West, and Midwest, 29, 23, and 26 percent of working adults, respectively, also expect to shop online.

While the Northeast, by volume, is projected to have the highest percentage of working online holiday shoppers, the survey results show that workers' bosses in the Northeast are the least likely to approve of holiday shopping at work. Among the consumers polled in the Northeast, only 45 percent believe their bosses would be okay with it, while the highest percentage of those who believe their bosses wouldn't mind comes from the South, at 70 percent, followed then by the West at 54 percent and the Midwest at 52 percent.

Results show that the most popular time of day to shop online at work is during lunch or break-time. P.K. Van Deloo, senior brand manager at Yahoo! Shopping, says that Yahoo! Shopping traffic data backs up the survey's findings. "Lunchtime consistently proves to be a popular time to get personal chores done using technology. Our traffic data mirrors the survey findings - traffic on Yahoo! Shopping spikes as the lunch hour moves across the country's time zones," he says adding that, "In today's work environment, efficiency is king." Fifty-seven percent of respondents claimed to do their online holiday shopping at work during lunch or break-time.

Nearly a quarter of those surveyed - notably more single (29 percent) than married (19 percent) individuals - say they are likely to stay late at work to do their online holiday shopping.

People cite three main reasons for shopping online at work versus going out to do their holiday shopping: convenience, avoiding crowds, and avoiding bad weather - and who can blame Northeasterners and Midwesterners for wanting to avoid that awful winter-time weather.