Shopping Habits of American Consumers: A Look at In-store Versus Online Purchasing
Commerce Signals, a leader in U.S. payment card purchase data and analysis, recently released its “In-store vs. Online: Where Is the American Consumer Shopping?” report, looking at the U.S. retail purchase consumer behavior before, during and after the pandemic.
The report’s data was gathered from Commerce Signals’ Spend Analytics Suite. Data from the report includes Visa and Mastercard credit and debit card purchases.
More from WWD
Anthropologie's Fall Campaign Features Australian Actress Phoebe Tonkin
UFC, Celio Unite to Take a Jab at Apparel for Gane-Spivac Fight in Paris
Fashion Industry Vets Open New Multibrand Boutique in Santa Monica
Overall, the study has found a permanent change in consumer behavior. From a macro perspective, the total consumer card spending at retailers has grown more than 52 percent in the last four years while online shopping within the last four years has more than doubled (103 percent).
“The pandemic caused a step change in online buying across all categories,” said Nick Mangiapane, chief marketing officer and head of partnerships at Commerce Signals. “While some categories have returned to where they were pre-pandemic, others stepped into a new normal sparked by habits introduced because of the pandemic.”
Consumer electronics retailers, pet supply retailers and mass merchants were the top categories that saw an increase in online sales from 2018 to 2023. Mass merchant retailers Target and Walmart especially had major growth within their e-commerce and buy online, pickup in-store purchase options.
One of the most substantial changes comes from off-price retailers. Retailers such as Burlington Stores Coat Factory, Marshalls, Neiman Marcus Last Call, Nordstrom Rack, Ross Dress for Less and T.J. Maxx jumped in sales to 84 percent online in 2020.
While the company attributes these pandemic changes to the closing of stores and their lack of an e-commerce presence, the researchers also note that the switch didn’t last long, pointing to the 2023 off-price retailer online spending now settling at just 8 percent.
One category that saw a massive pendulum swing is fashion retailers. Online purchases peaked at 95 percent in 2020 and subsequently fell over the course of three years to 47 percent. The report suggests that this change has disproved the prediction of the end of in-store shopping. Commerce Signals notes that in the post-pandemic era, people still have the urge to physically try on clothes, touch fabric, look at the items they’re purchasing and connect socially with others throughout the process.
Moreover, Mangiapane explains that during the pandemic, customers who normally wouldn’t engage in online shopping did so. In turn, this shift in consumer behavior has created a need for businesses to diversify and think with an omnichannel mindset to meet this change in consumer expectations.
“More consumers than ever are comfortable with buying online,” Mangiapane said. “The behavior change makes it easier for individual companies and brands to make rapid inroads on the market share historically dominated by bigger companies. Retailers need to monitor the sales performance of up-and-coming brands and understand where, why and with whom they are driving sales to keep up.”
Looking ahead, the pandemic has opened new avenues for businesses to explore expansion. Commerce Signals advises retailers and brands to be more open with unexpected opportunities, citing business model innovations by mass merchants such as Amazon and consumer electronic companies such as Apple. By providing convenience, speed of delivery, cost, ease of browsing, and a wide selection, a focus on enhancing the customer experience will be a major drive for consumers to continue to purchase online.
“The emergence of new online buying habits has created opportunities for both emerging and established brands to carve out their market share by offering innovative products and unique experiences,” Mangiapane said. “As consumer behavior continues to evolve, individual brands have the potential to influence the balance between online and in-store shopping for entire product categories. These shifts in consumer preferences could reshape the retail landscape significantly in the future.”
Best of WWD
