PayPal’s Money Pool Helps Users Split The (Gift) Check

Holiday shopping may be the biggest time of the year for retailers, but more than half of Americans dread the annual shopping fest.

That’s according to PayPal, which found in a new survey that 54 percent of Americans say they are stressed out about shopping for the holidays, with only 32 percent actually finding it a fun and joyful experience.

What’s more, 33 percent of Americans plan to pool funds to make a purchase this holiday season. In response to that need, the payment company has created a Money Pools feature, which is a free and easy way to collect and keep track of money for group gifts. PayPal describes a Money Pool as “a more personalized and organized way to collect money with family and friends while also easing the burden of someone having to front the money or chase people to pay you back.”

Once a user creates a Money Pool, he can share the link with other PayPal gift givers via text, email, Facebook or Twitter to start collecting. All of the contributions are tracked in the pool’s activity feed and go straight to the PayPal account to spend when the buyer is ready.

In other news from the study, PayPal found that people will spend an average of $230 on their significant others and $80 on gifts for friends. What’s more, two thirds or 67 percent said they will buy a gift for their pet this holiday season, and will spend an average of $85 on their pets. Millennials spend the most on their children and spend more overall than young baby boomers, laying out $657 on gifts this year compared to $546 by the young boomers.

PayPal also found that four in five survey respondents (or 80 percent) plan to make holiday purchases from a mobile device this year, primarily because of the flexibility it affords them. Another third of American survey respondents said they favor shopping on a mobile device because they can act when inspiration strikes.

With the prevalence of mobile devices, people are shopping in unique places. PayPal found 46 percent plan to shop from their toilet, which is up from 22 percent last year. Another 42 percent plan to do their shopping in the office, up from 33 percent in 2016; 49 percent plan to make purchases for their partners while they sleep next to them, up from 34 percent in 2016. Shopping at the dinner table is expected to increase to 22 percent this year from 14 percent last year. Only 5 percent said they shopped while driving, PayPal noted.

The survey also found that American shoppers expect to spend an approximate equal amount of time shopping in physical stores and online. The average time expected to shop in a store stands at two hours and 48 minutes, compared to three hours on a laptop or desktop computer and two hours and 30 minutes on a mobile device.