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Washington--Consumers have made their lists and checked them twice. But, at this point, they’ve only purchased about half of what they need, the latest survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF) shows.

According to the latest survey conducted by BIGresearch for the NRF, as of the second week of December, the average person had completed 47 percent of their holiday shopping, less than the 50 percent the average person had completed by this time last year.

About 17 percent said they had not even started their shopping, while 8 percent said they were finished. In addition, the survey found that the average 25- to 34-year-old had finished the most shopping of any age group, about 50 percent.

NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay compared the season to a marathon--consumers started out strong, paced themselves in the middle and are gearing up for the final stretch.

This is the second such survey to surface recently. Last week, Reuters published results of a survey that said that 32 percent of shoppers completed their holiday rounds in November, and more than 6 percent knocked it out the first weekend in December.

The latest NRF survey also found that nearly half of those polled, 46 percent, plan to do the remainder of their holiday shopping online, taking advantage of online retailers’ extended and, in many cases, free shipping offers. That is the highest percentage in this survey’s nine-year history and up from 38 percent last year.

Other consumer picks for shopping in the coming weeks include department stores (44 percent), electronics stores (23 percent), discount stores (36 percent), grocery stores (13 percent), specialty stores (11 percent) and outlets (13 percent).

As for what people have bought so far, gift cards, as already reported, are the No. 1 item this holiday season, with 31 percent of shoppers saying they’ve already purchased them, up from 30 percent last year.

As also noted previously, discretionary items also are popular this holiday season, including jewelry, purchased so far by 16 percent of shoppers, up from 14 percent last year.

BIGresearch polled a total of 8,402 consumers between Nov. 30 and Dec. 7 for this latest survey.