Let's play Jeopardy: "40% of Americans say they can't live without it."
What is love? Ennnnnnhh! (Annoying "wrong!" buzzer)
What is sex? Ennnnnnhh!
What is wine? Ennnnnnhh!
What is beef? Ennnnnnhh!
The correct answer is "online shopping."
Hmm. I have to say: I can live without it, but I'd rather live with it.
I buy most stuff online now. Especially during the holiday season, when someone in my family tells me what they want under the tree, you can bet I'm going to track it down on Amazon or some online store and snag it. And I'll be especially fast to pull the trigger if—because of the convenience—an omnichannel retailer offers the product.
What's an Omnichannel Retailer?
According to Square, this is omnichannel retail: "Meeting people on the channels where they are shopping and buying, whether it's in a physical store or an online story or on social media—and connecting the dots between those channels."
And according to BigCommerce, omnichannel retail is this: "Stores selling both online and offline—likely also selling through multiple online channels...Amazon, eBay, Facebook..."
I got these definitions from OmniChannel Retail in 2017: What Brands Need to Know and Modern Consumer Shopping Habits, by BigCommerce and Square.
It's not every day you read reports about omnichannel shopping, but I just did, and I'll be sharing many of its highlights with you here.
Who Shops Online?
The report says, in America, the answer is almost everyone: 96% of those with Internet access. And 51% prefer shopping online.
Naturally, we should slice this data by age groups. Survey says... 67% of millennials prefer to let their keyboards to the buying. Seniors? Not so much: 28%. As you might imagine numbers for the age groups in-between fall in-between.
Have a look:
Know who else loves online shopping? Parents. No group values "ease of purchase" like parents. They spend 61% more than those who aren't parents.
How Much Budget Gets Spent Online?
Preferences aside, when you open the cashbox, the reality is only a fraction of retail sales occurs online. For online shoppers, the research I've been referring to claims 64% of the spending is in stores.
That said, e-commerce sales have been increasing steadily. The report says e-commerce experts predict e-commerce sales will hit $523 billion by 2020, a 56% increase from the $335 billion achieved in 2015.
But here's the deal... and the main point of this article: The most successful retailers are omnichannel commerce businesses. They do business online and in stores.
Because American consumers shop wherever it's most convenient.
Online Shopping Habits
