With so much being made of the nearly 5,000 brick-and-mortar store closures this year and Amazon’s ever-expanding presence, it’d be easy for merchants to assume that offline is dead and Amazon is the only path to retail success. Not so, according to a new BigCommerce omnichannel buying survey. Amazon, offline and other online channels influence each other more than ever, and while a whopping 78% of respondents made a purchase from Amazon over the past six months, 65% still made an in-store purchase within the same period. We can expect those trends and others, detailed below, to be reflected during the oncoming holiday shopping crush.
The BigCommerce Study Reveals That Merchants Are Missing Omnichannel Opportunities
Global study of digital shoppers finds one in every three dollars of discretionary income is now spent online; digital channels influence nearly all offline purchase decisions
BigCommerce, the leading ecommerce platform for fast-growing and established brands, released its 2018 Omnichannel Buying Report, a new research study that examines survey responses of nearly 3,000 digital consumers to understand the role that online and offline channels play in customers’ purchase journey.
The study concludes that convenience, selection and data privacy are top of mind for digital shoppers and further illustrates the global impact of Amazon’s marketplace, which more than 8% of respondents have purchased from in the past six months, as opposed to 65% who have purchased from a physical retail store.
According to the study, one of every three dollars of monthly discretionary income is now spent online, but the relationship between online and offline channels is far more nuanced. 39% of consumer respondents visited a brand’s website before making a purchase in a physical retail store, and 33% will attempt to price match the product online.
Jimmy Duvall, chief product officer at BigCommerce, says “The retail industry has been throwing around the term ‘omnichannel’ for years, and while we’ve seen a handful of strong use cases, merchants are still struggling to create a true cross-channel experience that addresses the evolving behavior of their consumers. Our hope is that by providing merchants with a deeper context of how consumers are actually shopping today, we’re better equipping them with both the tools and the knowledge to create experiences that drive conversion and continued loyalty.”
The results of the study emphasize that brands can no longer afford a single-channel retail experience, and increasingly must make products available across multiple digital and offline channels where consumers are shopping. Key global findings from the report include:
BigCommerce is a cloud ecommerce platform for established and rapidly-growing businesses, says the report.