Consumer Behavior

Love for online won't fade once pandemic is over, claims study

Photo by istock.com

September 17, 2020

Once the coronavirus pandemic subsides 86% of consumers will rely on online shopping at the same pace seen during COVID-19 and a big reason is convenience.

That's a prime finding from a study, "State of the Consumer: The E-Shopping Revolution Study," released by consumer insights platform Suzy. The study polled shopping habits of 1,000 U.S. consumers in August 2020.

The study found that, compared to pre-pandemic times, 54% of online shoppers are buying more groceries online and 48% are buying more cleaning supplies, according to a press release on the findings.

But online apparel shopping is down, with 27% of respondents buying less apparel online.

"Despite the overwhelming toll the pandemic has taken on industries across the board, there's a new story emerging in retail, as consumers have been forced to change their purchasing habits," Suzy President Avi Savar said in the release. "Given this, consumers are now embracing online shopping more than ever before, which is creating new online buying habits and fast-tracking the popularity of e-commerce."

Other findings include:

• Personal care products (57%), groceries (50%), and electronics (44%) are the top three products online shoppers feel most comfortable buying online.
• About half of online shoppers (49%) feel texts from brands are helpful and like them but (25%) of shoppers disagree and find texts from brands intrusive.
• Most online shoppers (65%) have not used AI/virtual reality to test new products at home.