Retailers need omni-channel plans to back customer preferences: survey

02 Jul '21

4 min read

Pic: Shutterstock

Consumer shifts in how and where people buy products evolved significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, creating new opportunities for retailers to use new channels, fulfillment strategies and payment options, according to a new survey, which highlights a growing need for retailers to invest in an omni-channel sales and marketing strategy.

The survey covered 3,000 consumers from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia and was conducted by BigCommerce and PayPal. BigCommerce is a leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) e-commerce platform, while PayPal is a digital payment company.

As customers continue to move away from brick-and-mortar stores to digital commerce and increasingly use their phones to make purchases, an omni-channel strategy opens up the opportunity for retailers to re-evaluate their sales and marketing strategies to ensure they’re meeting customers where they are the most likely to spend, a press release from the companies said citing the survey results.

While a majority of the respondents said they still prefer in-person shopping, 62.5 per cent reported doing most of their purchasing online. Close to half said they are discovering new products on social media at least once a month, and 66.7 per cent said they have made a purchase directly through their phone at least once in the past month.

How people pay for purchases is also changing. 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 per cent of online shoppers globally, but that jumped to 35.2 per cent after March 2020. The increase for using digital wallets in-store was even greater, going from 12.1 per cent to 22.8 per cent.

While 95.2 per cent of respondents reported making at least one online purchase since March 2020, a slight majority across all regions reported a preference for in-person shopping. Despite that, 32.6 per cent of US respondents, 29.9 per cent of UK respondents and 29.7 per cent of Australian respondents said the convenience of online shopping still trumps any drawbacks, and new options like buy online, pick-up in store (BOPIS) are making it even more attractive.

As a preferred way to buy, BOPIS has grown substantially since March 2020, with a 373 per cent increase in the United States, where BOPIS has been slower to catch on compared to other countries.

The use of digital wallets rose in popularity during the pandemic with a global increase of 24.5 per cent online and 88.7 per cent for in-store purchases since March 2020. Respondents overwhelmingly commented that they’d prefer retailers make digital payment options more available.

Mid-market merchants are increasingly adopting buy now, pay later (BNPL) solutions for their ecommerce stores with Australia leading the way. Forty eight per cent of Australian merchants, 20 per cent of US merchants and 11 per cent of UK merchants currently offer BNPL options to customers.

Consumers seem to fall into two main categories when it comes to using these types of solutions: power users and slow adopters. Globally, 46 per cent say they’ve used a BNPL option at least once in the past three months. However, just 10.1 per cent globally say they have used it five or more times in that same time period.

In Australia, that number jumps to 15.5 per cent. Fifty-four per cent of global respondents—and 60.6 per cent of US respondents—have never used BNPL. Most said they were deterred by incurring fees or debt, or that they simply were not familiar with the option.

Consumers are shopping mainly at large retailers or branded ecommerce stores. Of those polled, 58.2 per cent said they shop at department stores, hypermarkets or big-box retailers, while 31.9 per cent said they purchase directly from the ecommerce stores of their favorite name brands.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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