Before the internet came around, there was only one recognized means of shopping – in-store. Customers all around the world had no choice but to go to a store, pick out an item, queue on long checkout lines, and take their purchased goods home.
Recently, things have changed drastically and maybe for the better too. We are sure you know about ecommerce. You might not be too familiar with the term itself, but we can bet that you used the ecommerce at least once in your life.
It allows you to go to an online store, make a purchase, pay securely with a credit/debit card or by using other online payment solution, and get the items delivered to your doorstep. Amazing, right?
Ecommerce is the in-thing now. It is no secret that the rate of online sales is growing all around the world. Namely, all retail giants with physical presence still collect much higher revenue from their brick and mortar stores than online shops.
In the United States alone, the total revenue of the in-store purchases outweighs that of online sales by a factor of ten. Despite that, the online sales are growing astronomically, three times faster than in-store sales.
By the end of 2016, the online shopping rate in the US had increased by 12.2%, while for in-store shopping that number was 3%. In 2017, online shopping revenues grew by a little over 10% and in-store shops’ revenues by 3.3%.
Of course, online shopping is not everybody’s cup of tea. There are a lot of people out there who prefer the experience of shopping in a store for various reasons.
For example, they prefer the assurance that comes with holding an item physically and examining it before making an informed purchase. They also love the feeling of walking through a store, analyzing different brands, and mulling through decisions.
To put this in numbers, 56% of in-store shoppers say that they prefer brick and mortar stores because they want to see or touch the item first.
Among them, 55% want to try the product on, 41% are worried that the products might look different if bought online, 34% believe that delivery takes too long, 25% think that shipping costs are too high and unnecessary, while 24% say that some items are just too valuable to be purchased online.
Let’s also not forget that in-store shopping can be considered a fun activity.
For others, however, online shopping is right up their alley. They prefer to make online search about a product, read about its features, check out reviews, pictures, and videos before buying it online.
The infographic below contains a lot more information and valuable stats about the preference of shoppers from different age groups all around the world. Check it out.
