Consumer Behavior

Many consumers embracing omnichannel journey

Photo: Adobe Stock

April 17, 2024

A majority of consumers, 73%, are blending online research, physical store visits and options such as buy-online and in-store pickup before making a purchase.

That's a prime finding of research from ShipStation and Retail Economics on the modern customer journey.

"For retailers, the pressure to be everywhere their customers are has never been greater," Al Ko, CEO of Auctane, parent company of ShipStation, said in a press release on the findings. "Due to increased choice and tighter wallets, consumers are more selective about the brands they shop with and will settle for nothing less than a unified experience across websites, physical storefronts, marketplace channels, and social media."

Additional findings include:

• $448 billion in online sales across the U.S. and Canada are dependent on physical touchpoints like in-store browsing, buy-online, in-store pickup, or in-person returns, accounting for 41% of total online sales in these regions.
• Globally, consumers aged 45 and under are nearly four times more likely to report researching products on social media compared to older generations. A quarter of surveyed U.S. consumers were also open to using AI-powered chatbots to research products before making a purchase.
• Regardless of where they discovered a product, consumers still expect fast and affordable deliveries for online purchases, with 60% of those surveyed in the U.S. expecting free shipping to take two days or less, a speed only one-fourth of surveyed retailers in the U.S. and Canada currently provide. Meanwhile, over half of all surveyed retailers cite rising shipping costs as the main threat to their performance, and a net balance of 34% plan to increase their delivery charges in 2024, up from 28% a year ago.
• Convenient returns are important to consumers, but printing out a shipping label and dropping a return off with a carrier holds little appeal. 80% of surveyed U.S. consumers prefer alternative return means, like having a parcel service pick up their return from their home, using third-party drop-off locations (such as kiosks or lockers), or visiting the physical store of the brand to make a return. Meanwhile, only a fifth (19%) of surveyed retailers offer out-of-home returns options.