Online consumers to double this holiday shopping season

The number of consumers planning to do their holiday shopping online has doubled from 24 percent in 2019 to 51 percent in 2020, according to new research.

The research, commissioned by online data collection service Luminati Networks and carried out by market research service Vanson Bourne, asked 2,000 people, evenly split between the UK and the US, about their online holiday shopping preferences.

The data revealed that 55 percent of consumers will be participating in holiday shopping events this year such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Of those, 61 percent stated their shopping will mainly be online, even after Covid-19, and 37 percent have stated they are unlikely to carry out any physical shopping this year.

Some 78 percent of respondents said securing the best price is most important when doing their online shopping this holiday season as consumers have been impacted financially by the pandemic - 32 percent said it is the most important factor when choosing where to shop.

E-commerce shift to continue beyond the pandemic

Or Lenchner, CEO of Luminati Networks, said in a statement: “E-commerce adoption has skyrocketed this year, and we now have the data to support that this shift will continue well beyond the end of the pandemic.

“We also know that holiday shopping days like Black Friday have changed significantly, and likely permanently, due to the pandemic, as the majority of customers now prefer to shop online.

“The key for retailers hoping to excel in the new retail landscape – where competitive online pricing is vital – is online data collection, which will allow them to continue attracting price-conscious shoppers who are armed with price comparison tools.”

In a similar but separate study from Retail Economics in partnership with ‘buy now, pay later’ payment service Klarna, more than 43 percent of UK consumers expect to do at least half of their Christmas shopping online this year.

It also revealed that 13 percent of consumers (6.7 million British consumers) plan to do at least 90 percent of their Christmas shopping online.

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