Omnichannel

Data: Omnichannel consumption up 50% during 2020

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December 29, 2020

Omnichannel consumption in the U.S. spiked 50% during 2020 with nearly half of all consumer goods purchases completed via e-commerce, according to Nielsen Connect's Omnichannel Shopping Fundamentals survey.

"The new Omnichannel Fundamental Survey was specifically created to bring clarity to the industry's most pressing questions, such as: the pandemic's impact on impulse and planned purchases, omnichannel category drivers, decision influencers and fulfillment method and delivery preferences across the omni retail landscape," Nikhil Sharma, Nielsen's vice president of North America Consumer Analytics, said in a press release on the survey..

Additional report highlights include:

• The number of shoppers who consider themselves to heavily or exclusively shop online for everyday items grew by 133% between September 2019 and September 2020.
• Shoppers' preference for in-store pick-up grew by 26% during the 52 weeks ended September 2020.
• Non-food categories like pet supplies, vitamins and facial skin care are performing exceedingly well across the omnichannel landscape.
• 29% of shoppers found the order history tool to be the most helpful feature when shopping online for non-food items.

"Within the U.S., new behaviors have emerged that retailers and manufacturers must acknowledge, accommodate and swiftly act on — especially as online shopping habits begin to solidify. While we do expect a return of some kind to pre-pandemic habits, consumers will not be returning to a pre-pandemic retail environment," said Sharma in the release.