Consumers Increasingly See Online Shopping as Channel of Future: Report

Nearly half of U.S. consumers would be fine if they never shopped in a brick-and-mortar store again, said a Monday report from Jungle Scout, a platform for selling on Amazon.com. About three-quarters of consumers believe the majority of shopping will happen online in the future, it said, based on an Oct. 1-2 survey of 1,002 consumers.

A third of consumers started holiday shopping by Oct. 1. Nearly 70% of consumers plan to shop on Black Friday: 43% online, 26% in stores. The same percentage of consumers plan to shop on Cyber Monday: half online, 19% in stores. More than a quarter of shoppers will give gifts to themselves; more plan self-gifts than to give to in-laws, grandparents, neighbors, co-workers or essential workers, said the report.

Twelve percent of shoppers plan to spend up to $100, 22% up to $250, 24% up to $500, 16% up to $1,000, 8% to $2,500, 5% to $5,000 and 2% more than $5,000, said the report. The most popular price range for a single gift is $26-$50 (21%), followed by under $25 (17%), $76-$100 (15%) and $101-$250 (12%). Thirty-five percent of shoppers didn’t save for the holiday season.

In Q3, 70% of consumers shopped Amazon, 35% Walmart.com, 26% Target.com and 8% Bestbuy.com. Of electronics shoppers, 16% increased their spending during the July-September period, 46% spent the same, 27% cut back and 11% didn’t buy electronics.

Nearly a quarter of Americans will reduce holiday spending if no stimulus package is approved by Congress, said the survey. The election outcome caused either a 30% increase or decrease in holiday spending, it said. July-September, 46% of consumers said their spending decreased, 22% spent more and 32% spent about the same, but a third plan to spend less on holiday shopping vs. holiday 2019. Two-thirds of consumers plan to reduce spending on nonessential items in the future, up from 61%.

Holiday season spending will feature essential gifts, with 21% of respondents planning to give groceries and toiletries. Consumers prefer to buy groceries, cleaning products and over-the-counter medicines in physical stores, though more than a third are buying these products exclusively online during the pandemic, Jungle Scout said.

Some 61% of consumers are Amazon Prime members, up from 58% in May, and all surveyed plan to keep their memberships for the next three months. About 14% got their Prime account in the past three months, 48% have had a Prime account for more than three months, 13% canceled one over three months ago, 9% plan to get one in the future and 13% weren’t interested. Some 58% of consumers are shopping more frequently on Amazon since the pandemic than they did previously.