The recession is over but shoppers still cautious

The latest GDP figures released today reveal Britain has emerged from recession but our shopping habits have fundamentally changed and careful spending is here to stay according to findings from PayPal, the leading online payment service.

The PayPal report "Online Retail: the new consumer demands", undertaken by The Future Laboratory, shows that the recession changed our shopping habits and one in five online shoppers (19%) intend to maintain their careful spending.

Responding to the news that Britain is officially out of recession, Mark Hodson, Marketing Director of PayPal UK, said: "The downturn unsurprisingly had a major impact on people's spending habits and shoppers have become more considered in their purchases, as the popularity of sites such as PayPal Offers has shown. Although we're now technically out of recession it's going to be some time before consumers start feeling better off and in the meantime we're likely to remain savvy shoppers."

How the recession changed the way we shop:

According to PayPal research over half of shoppers became more conscious of price (58%) and 54% started bargain hunting more thanks to the recession. On and offline we also become more modest with 28% of shoppers not buying things that were clearly luxuries and 17% buying quality over quantity. The recession also made shoppers start saving up before splashing out. Over one in six (17%) claimed to save up for the things they wanted to buy rather than using a credit card as they would have done before the downturn.

Women became more considered than men in their purchases. They were more likely to shop around, be conscious of price or buy quality over quantity. The only new shopping habit borne of the recession where men are more likely to save money than women is bargaining and negotiating with retailers. One in seven (14%) men now do this thanks to the recession compared to just 8% of women.