PORTLAND, Maine (UPI) -- More than 38 million Americans have shopped online while sitting on the toilet, a CashStar survey showed.

The poll also suggests almost 17 million people have shopped via a mobile device while standing in the retailer's physical store; 9 million have secretly shopped while in a business meeting; and 4 million have shopped online while driving a car.

The survey was conducted online nationwide by Harris Interactive on behalf of CashStar from Nov. 6-8, among 2,104 U.S. online adults ages 18 and older. The calculation was based on the U.S. Census Bureau's 2011 Census, which estimates there are 237,744,632 million adults ages 18 and older residing in the United States.

The CashStar-Harris survey examined the strange places U.S. adults have used computers or mobile devices to shop online.

"Smartphones and tablets have enabled consumers to shop and gift on-the-go in more ways and places than ever before," David Stone, co-founder and chief executive officer of CashStar, a digital gifting and incentives partner for retailers, said in a statement Monday. The retailers who have been paying attention and catering to where and how consumers want to shop by mobile-optimizing their e-commerce sites and offering mobile eGift Cards will reap the rewards this holiday season and have a jump on the competition going into 2013.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International