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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -
As U.S. retailers gear up for the final lap of the holiday shopping season, rising energy costs could turn into the Grinch that stole Christmas sales, according to results of a new consumer survey.
More than half of the 10,000 households polled in a joint survey by the Conference Board and market research group TNS said they will make fewer trips to the mall, while more than one out of every three plan to cut back their spending to combat costs, according to the report released Wednesday.
Moreover, about 30 percent of those surveyed said the because of higher fuel prices they will do more of their gift-buying online instead of in stores.
Energy cost woes also appear to be climbing up the income ladder, affecting affluent as well as low-to mid-income consumers, the report said.
Among the richer households, with annual incomes over $75,000, more than 60 percent of the respondent said that in the days ahead, they planned to make fewer mall trips than in previous years.
Spending less more online, less in malls
Consumers plan to spend between $250 to $500 or more this year gift-shopping on the Internet, the survey showed.
These same shoppers will also visit "brick-and mortar" stores, but 64 percent said they will spend less than $250 in stores.
"Higher prices are driving more shoppers to the Internet instead of to the mall and changing the way consumers are doing their holiday shopping this year," Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center, said in the report.
"But if energy prices recede, there is no guarantee these consumers will return to the malls," she added. "They may very well continue to pint, click and ship instead."
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