Consumer Behavior

Survey: Consumer behavior shift creating opportunities for retailers

Photo by istock.com

July 7, 2021

While a majority of consumers in the U.S, U.K. and Australia still prefer in-person shopping, more than half, 62.5%, are doing most of their purchasing online, 66.7% are finding new products on social media at least once a month and 66.7% have bought something directly via a smartphone at least once in the past month.

Those are top findings from a survey from BigCommerce and PayPal and they highlight a growing need for retailers to invest in an omnichannel sales and marketing strategy that provides convenient and consistent shopping experiences in-store, online and on social media, according to a press release on the results.

"For years, we've seen e-commerce continue to gain ground on traditional shopping. Online and digitized experiences have required retailers to quickly adapt to changing consumer shopping behaviors, and this was expedited in the pandemic," Greg Lisiewski, vice president of global pay later products at PayPal, said in the release. "Now more than ever, consumers want to be in control of how they pay, and they have a desire for friction-free, seamless digital shopping experiences regardless of which channel they are shopping in."

More consumers are using digital wallets both in-store and online. Prior to March 2020, digital wallets were the preferred payment option for 28.3% of online shoppers globally, but that jumped to 35.2% after March 2020. The increase for using digital wallets in-store was even greater, going from 12.1% to 22.8%.

"The data tells us 70% of consumers are more likely to spend more at a retailer that offers their preferred payment method," Mark Rosales, vice president of business development, payments/banking/fintech at BigCommerce, said in the release. "By leveraging this behavioral data, merchants have better means and ability to implement the payment options their customers prefer, ultimately enabling those brands to realize significant sales growth."