The survey revealed more than half of consumers believe they would change their purchasing behaviour at a retailer if they knew its systems had been hacked and credit card data stolen. Fifty-five percent of U.S. consumers would return to cash payments at checkout and 20 percent would take their shopping elsewhere.

Plastic beats paper.  According to the survey, more than 90 percent of consumers who planned to buy holiday gifts would be using a credit card, debit card or mobile device like a smartphone. This surpasses 56 percent of consumers who planned to use cash. The survey allowed for multiple answers in this section to fully capture consumer preferences.  Even though the use of mobile wallets is on the rise due to speed and ease of use, only 16 percent of U.S. consumers planned to use mobile payments this season.

The switch to online and mobile device shopping and payments has gained serious ground against brick-and-mortar. In the U.S., physical stores are in the lead, but just barely. Sixty-six percent of U.S. consumers intended to visit a store to buy holiday gifts, while 64 percent were going to purchase on a desktop or laptop computer. One-third of holiday shoppers were going to use a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet.

They survey asked, "Which of the following, if any, describe how you will be making your holiday purchases this year?" (This part of the survey also allowed for multiple answers to fully capture consumer preferences). The respondents replied as follows:

66%  - At a store’s physical location

64% - On a desktop or laptop computer

33% - On a mobile device, smartphone or tablet

8% - I do not plan to do any holiday shopping this year

“These survey results offer a stark reminder that a serious data breach could stop many consumers from shopping at a merchant’s store or at the very least move them back to cash payments,” said Jose Diaz, director of payment strategy at Thales e-Security. “While the current make-up of U.S. consumer buying habits shows a slight lead for traditional approaches, I anticipate that we will continue to see greater adoption of mobile for both browsing and buying as well as an increase in mobile wallet use over the next five years.”