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Consumers are making their shopping, and payments, preferences known this holiday season. They are spending 12% more on e-commerce purchases so far this shopping season than they did in 2015, reports comScore Inc.
Consumers have made $49.3 billion in e-commerce purchases from Nov. 1 to Dec. 12 using a desktop computer at home or work. That’s up from $43.9 billion in 2015.
Also notable is that this year’s Cyber Monday, the Monday following Thanksgiving when many consumers return to work and are thought to shop online, marked the first time $1 billion was spent in a day using mobile devices. Cyber Monday mobile commerce totaled $782 million in 2015.
This pace of growth is not wholly unexpected, especially as consumers “are becoming increasingly comfortable with online and mobile purchasing,” says Beth Robertson, industry analyst at consultancy RPS LLC. That’s because e-commerce “enables a much broader breadth and depth of product availability than in a typical mall or storefront shopping environment, prices are competitive, delivery has become much more timely and reliable, and returns are typically straightforward and often easier to accomplish than in the brick-and-mortar world.”
Convenience isn’t the only factor in this shift, says Paula Rosenblum, managing partner and cofounder of advisory firm Retail Systems Research. Retailers’ sales promotion is a factor, too. “Consumers have recognized that the world of doorbusters just isn’t all that, and you can get similar deals online without waiting in long lines in cold or hot weather,” Rosenblum says in an email to Digital Transactions News.
The in-store shopping experience is lacking. “Since returns are generally free, and the in-store experience is not exceptional, and consumers do their own research separate from store associates, it’s just easier to buy online,” Rosenblum says. “Even if there’s the equivalent to a doorbuster at least you’re just clicking on a screen, rather than waiting in a line.”
But it’s not just the retail component that’s influencing this change in consumer behavior. “From the payments perspective, PCI-compliance requirements lend consistency to the handling of confidential consumer information and liability policies have made consumers less wary of shopping online due to concerns about possible fraud,” Robertson says. “All of these factors bode well for a continuing rapid climb in e-commerce, as technology continues to improve consumer understanding of products and augment their interactions with e-commerce sites.”
