Delta Variant to Spur More Online Holiday Shopping Than Thought in May

The summer surge in COVID-19's delta variant appears to be having a “significant impact” on anticipated consumer shopping behaviors before the peak holiday selling season, a Pitney Bowes survey found. The company canvassed a nationally representative sample of 2,000 U.S. consumers in the past month, finding one in three plans to shop more online compared with current shopping patterns, it said Tuesday.

That’s a 19-point increase in preferences for online shopping from when Pitney Bowes last asked the question in May, when “health and safety guidance was relaxing and COVID-19 cases were on a steady decline,” said the company. Only one in four plans to holiday-shop in physical stores, 16 percentage points fewer than in the May survey.

Consumer sentiment toward the delta variant varies “across generations,” the survey found. Millennials are the “most cautious” about venturing into physical stores for the holidays, it said. Nearly three in 10 (28%) of those polled said they will shop less in person than now, and nearly half (46%) said they will shop more online, all due to the delta variant, said Pitney Bowes. That’s about a 20-point increase since May “for both pieces of data, the highest of any age group,” it said.

Online was consumers’ “favorite holiday shopping destination” a year ago, said Gregg Zegras, Pitney Bowes president-global e-commerce. “As we enter this year’s peak season amid the surge of the delta variant, our data shows that consumers are defaulting back to their new comfort zone. All of us in this industry should expect a peak not unlike 2020.” Pitney Bowes is advising retailers to schedule holiday promotions earlier than traditionally “to pull forward demand,” and to lower risk of being out of stock by “diversifying” their product mix, said Zegras.

With the delta variant delaying the return of many to physical offices likely into 2022, physical-store shopping trips likely will become “more intentional,” said Pitney Bowes. It’s expected that retail brands “will experience greater adoption of online shopping” than previously anticipated back in May as a result, it said Pitney Bowes.

The survey found one in three adults canvassed expects to work remotely most of the time for the rest of 2021, while Generation Zers see themselves returning to the physical workspace more often than do other age groups. One in four baby boomers and one in five GenXers hold jobs where remote work isn't possible, putting a “slightly lower ceiling” on those age groups on how shopping behavior might change due to the delta variant, said the company.