To triumph in the battle for the hearts, minds and dollars of online shoppers, brands and retailers need to arm themselves with a deep understanding of digital customer journeys and the factors that influence online purchasing decisions.
"The Future Shopper 2019", our new international online eCommerce report, provides much-needed clarity for brands and organizations, capturing new insight in three key phases of the digital shopping experience.
The report reveals where people go for inspiration, where they're shopping and what they're buying online, as well as how to engage with them to deliver a gold-standard digital shopping experience.
The Future Shopper 2019 surveyed over 15,000 online consumers across the USA, UK, Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Czechia.
See a selection of the report’s findings below; a more nuanced, geographical view is revealed in the full report, which highlights new trends, insights and success strategies for a rapidly changing world.
Reflected in the high scores across a variety of factors, it's clear we want it all - best prices, selection, and availability. And we want it all now.
The challenges for brands? To balance lower price strategies with the needs of their channel partners, and to implement efficient fulfilment and delivery capabilities.
For inspiration, consumers scour several channels for product discovery and recommendations, which shows they're truly platform-agnostic.
The responses suggest brands and retailers need to take an omnichannel approach to inspiration, building a presence in as many places used by their customers as they can.
Where do you go for inspiration for purchases?
Amazon still dominates. But its grip on shoppers is not so strong when it comes to the younger generation.
We found loyalty to Amazon noticeably lower with the Gen Z age group.
How Gen Z act and think:
Amazon rules across many areas - for now - and when it comes to searching for specific products, comparing prices and reading reviews, Amazon is still the number one destination, though search engines are a close second.
Where do you go to search for products?
Nearly a third of online shoppers now find inspiration in social media – up from 23% in our 2018 survey.
Expect this to continue as it's a source of purchase inspiration for 1 in every 2 consumers aged 16-24. Social commerce is going native too, with embedded technologies so you don't have to swap channels to make a purchase.
Who finds inspiration through social media?
Are shoppers more demanding these days? Of course they are! A range of demands from ethics to free samples show that consumers expect retailers to do a lot for them - and the world - before they are ready to buy.
WUNDERMAN THOMPSON COMMERCE is a global eCommerce consultancy that offers strategic clarity, tech know-how and creative inspiration to help organizations deliver winning commerce capabilities across digital channels: marketplaces (including Amazon), online retail and DTC.
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