Online shopping has skyrocketed this year for good for this Covid19 situation. Weeks of lockdown have forced people to purchase goods online. If you want to try your hand on building online shopping sites, now can be the best time for you. The change of mindset of global consumers to rely on e-commerce for their essentials and wants marks the beginning of a new era where most of the purchases will be made online and the customer would prefer to have the items delivered to their home directly.
Here Are The Top Statistics You Need To Know To Have A Clear Idea Of The Current Online Shopping Scenario.
Online Shopping Statistics 2023 #1. How many people are inclined to shop online as of now?
In 2018, a total of 1.8 Billion people had opted for e-shopping ( Statista 2018), and the number of esales globally was around 2.8 Trillion dollars that year. As of 2020, 26.2% of the world's population has already started to shop online. This shows how e-commerce has taken up a huge part of the world's economics. And this craze for online shopping is only to be increased as reports said 6.5 Trillion dollars by 2023. If this trajectory continues, the e-commerce sale can reach up to 8 Trillion dollars per year by 2025.
So, the world of e-commerce has a huge potential nowadays and the global economy can be impacted by it on a massive scale soon.
Where do people surf online before making a buy?
Online Shopping Statistics 2023 #2. Suppose you had to buy a headphone, what would you do?
If you are like most people, you want to fix your budget first. Then search about the companies for the specifications and brand value you want to have. Next, you may want to go for suggestions of the models of headphones and after finalizing the item tallying with the budget and your requirements. This can often be a long process, as you might want to research all the options thoroughly before finally buying it. And visiting the shops might be hectic, time-consuming and may not have too many varieties. And surfing about the items as you are on the go is convenient, and so common.
According to ThinkwithGoogle, 63% of online shopping had been initialized globally in 2018, and most of the searches had taken place on Google and Amazon. 43% of online shoppers use social media like Instagram to research the products they want to buy. Direct negotiation still is the best source of website traffic. Emailing and SEO searches are in the 3rd and 4th positions respectively.
Online Shopping Statistics 2023 #3. Where do people mostly shop from?
Guess the most popular website for e-sales in the US! You cannot get wrong with it, it is Amazon. This year, nearly 43% of e-commerce sales are coming from Amazon in the US. And this is to be nearly 50% by the next year.
Though the biggest online marketplace has been Chinese Taobao in 2019 (Statista) with a total GMV of 515 Billion dollars, while the GMV of Amazon was 344 Billion dollars. More than half of the global online sales in 2018 had been from Alibaba, eBay, and Amazon. While this may seem scary to the new start-ups, the ongoing growth spike can give you enough chance to flourish your start-up.
Online Shopping Statistics 2023 #4. Which gadgets do the customers use?
While most of the online searches have been initialized from mobile handsets, while it is about placing an order, customers still prefer desktop or laptop. Though the craze of using mobile is increasing day by day as people are being more and more fascinated by online shopping; as it already went up to 15% in the last 4 years. Only 34.5% of sales came through mobile phones in 2017 while it is about 49.2% in 2020. It is speculated that the use of mobile for shopping will go up to 53.9% in 2022.
As consumers are in general more cautious while making online payments, they often use a computer for this phase. But payment through mobile apps being more normalized and convenient, this practice is changing all over the world.
Online Shopping Statistics 2023 #5. What about the mode of payment?
One of the crucial aspects of online shopping is online payment. COVID has reduced the occurrences of cash on delivery to a great extent. The most popular mode of payment in 2018 had been eWallet, which was used for more than 36% of the orders placed (Paymentscardsandmobile, 2018), while the second and third positions were taken up by credit and debit cards consecutively.
If you do not know, eWallets are electronic-internet-enabled payment gateways that are secured and easy to use. Google pay, Samsung pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal are the most common payment gateways. If you are new in this e-commerce industry, you should include some of these eWallets to your site apart from the old age credit and debit cards, as people can be quick to change their decision of buying once they do not find a preferred payment mode during their purchase.
Online Shopping Statistics 2023 #6. How often people shop online nowadays?
It is a given that people have changed how they buy their essentials in 2020, so the frequency of buying has increased manifolds for the majority of the users. According to Episerver, 62% of online buyers had shopped at least monthly in 2019, whereas 26% of the users buy weekly and 3% of them purchase their needs daily from online. The practice of buying essentials online is undoubtedly defining a shift of mindset of the buyers where they are comfortable in this practice and rely on the eCommerce system.
While it is also to be noticed that 46% of buyers could not buy anything when they saw too many options; providing a customer numerous options for what they want gives them decision fatigue and thus they have a difficult time to choose what they want to buy and often end up not buying anything at all. This problem can be dealt with by giving proper suggestions which can be suitable for them. If websites can recommend only a few of the choices to the customers according to their shopping and searching history, these buyers will likely return for shopping online.
Online Shopping Statistics 2023 #7. Why do people abandon carts?
Imagine you have finalized an item to buy. You started the process, but right before the final payment, you back off and thought of buying the item offline. What the reason can be?
The reason for cart abandonment for 63% of all cases was shipping costs in 2019, according to Statista. The hidden shipping cost had proved to be a major setback for the final buys. The e-commerce website can avoid these cases by showing the shipping price from the very first or adding the cost to the price of the product. Minimizing or nullifying the shipping cost is essential now as these can alter the budget calculation of the customer at the last moment leaving a negative impact on their mind.
According to the Baymard Institute, the second largest reason for cart abandonment is to force customers to create accounts.
Apart from this, the other reasons for cart abandonment are not validating the discount codes properly, taking a long time to ship products, and needing to re-enter product details or payment details.
Online Shopping Statistics 2023 #8. Which items are frequently bought?
The items bought frequently have been changed a lot during this COVID period. So many people prefer to buy groceries online. Daily essentials and protective masks are being bought to a great extent.
According to Adobe, the spike of buying products related to virus protection went to 807% to be the highest. The rise of buying toilet paper has been 231% and for over the counter drugs like flu and cold, it was 217%. Orders of canned and non-perishable foods and other shelf-stable foods have risen to 87%.
Even the craze of buying fitness equipment for home had gone up by 55% in the first two weeks of March. The closing of gyms, needing exercise to improve immunity, and prohibition to get out of the home had caused this rise.
In the US, people have been seen to dedicate more budget for home improvement as a 13% sale in this category has increased in early March of 2020 compared to the safe timeslot of the previous year. Maybe spending more and more time confined at home led the customers to this. The sales related to the home office have been on a rise too as most of the sectors are imposing work from home in this COVID situation.
42% of online buyers have seen to buy groceries at least once a year in March 2020, while only 22% of online shoppers did that in 2018.
The garments industry is the most prominent sector to observe a hike in online sales year after year. 59% of online shoppers in the US have bought clothes from the sites and apps between the second quarter of 2018 to the second quarter of 2019.
The most bought categories other than clothing in the pre-COVID situation are books, movies, games, shoes, and also consumer electronics.
Online Shopping Statistics 2023 #9. What is the primary requirement of the customers?
When it is about online shopping, it is no secret that most of the time people buy what they find intriguing instead of what they need.
75% of consumers search queries each month for some brand new products and 69% of them look for some new items each item they log in to the sites and apps. So the new e-commerce sites are recommended to keep on adding new items constantly. A convenient search bar and navigation tool are also important, according to 61% of shoppers.
Online Shopping Statistics 2023 #10. Which online shopping is preferred over offline one by the consumers?
One major drawback of online shopping was considered to have unreliable products. While it is true that we cannot be sure how the product actually is unless we have them in our hands, giving a 360-degree view, detailed description, and exact dimensions have improved the experiences a lot.
According to the National Retail Federation, 80% of online shoppers and 63% of mobile shoppers have exclaimed that the implementation of new technologies has improved their experiences.
As a consumer, when you go for offline shopping, what do you ask for? A renowned shop with tons of varieties where the shopkeeper knows about your interest and can recommend you the exact item that you are looking for, right! Having reasonable prices, discounts and flexible return policy is an added benefit that everyone craves for. And all of these qualities are being implemented in online shopping nowadays.
You can have a trusted site with loads of options, the AI induced site that tracks your browsing and shopping history to improve their recommendation, a helpline or a chatbot to instantly deal with all the problems you might be facing and proper brand value- these qualities are proving to be more sustainable and worthy of replacing offline shopping as the day passes. To top it off, there are the product ratings and reviews by other customers that can give you an idea of what to expect from a product, in fact, 53% of customers rely on these ratings for buying.
This is the reason, it is expected that e-commerce will cover nearly 22% of global retail sales by 2023.
Conclusion
Online shopping experiences are being similar to shopping in person as the innovations are implemented. This induces a habit among the users and the easy, secured and hassle-free method of buying is ideal for everyone from busy workers to old and sick people who dares to go out from the home. Even when the COVID situation will stabilize, this e-commerce industry will be thriving as people are finding their comfort zone in this type of purchase.
Having an idea of your target audience, customizing the experience to the fullest according to how the customers’ search is the must to grow in this industry.
