The retail world is in a state of significant change, large due to online shopping. A recent study by Walker Sands Communications, based on responses from more than 1,400 U.S. consumers, indicates that 68 percent of respondents shop online at least once per month. Over one-quarter of them (28 percent) make online purchases at least once per week.
Clearly, a majority of shoppers becoming more comfortable with online shopping is just another signal that the digital world is increasingly important to consumers. Their desire to stay connected, whenever they want and wherever they are, is an undeniable factor for every marketer.
Just how comfortable consumers are with online shopping is demonstrated in this additional statistic: 76 percent of consumers say they would spend more than $100 on a product purchased online even if they didn't see it first. In fact, almost half (49 percent) of respondents have already spent between $101 and $500 on a product they didn't see first. This challenges the widely accepted notion that there is a price barrier for online shopping.
As for emerging technologies, mobile payments are set to surge in the next several years, thanks in part to the introduction of Apple Pay. According to the study, 40 percent of consumers used some kind of mobile payment application in 2014, an extraordinary jump from just 8 percent in the prior year's study. And all that buzz you hear about drone delivery? Apparently consumers believe it will happen: 66 percent of them think they will receive an ordered item by drone in the next five years, and 80 percent say they would pay for drone delivery if they could receive their order in an hour.
Marketers would do well to factor some of this data into future program strategies.
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