Featured image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Data analyzed by the HelpCenter app team reveals that a sudden, pandemic-inspired shift to digital has had a significant effect on consumer behavior. That is, downloads of shopping apps have soared, boosting them to second in popularity only after music apps.
Daily shopping online has become popular among all generations, with millennials leading at 73%. The survey was conducted between September 1 and late November 2020. Results are based on answers from more than 40,000 people across 39 countries.
What does all this mean for your business?
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Shopping Apps Lead the Way for Continuing Growth
Experts predict that e-commerce will continue to grow, with shopping apps on mobile devices leading the way.
The e-commerce sector was already growing at a steady pace. Then the pandemic accelerated the shift to digital by roughly five years. In the second quarter of 2020, the US Census Bureau reported retail e-commerce growth of 31.8%, with 44.5% increase year-over-year. At the same time, the number of retail app downloads in the EU jumped by 36% as compared to the first quarter of 2020. April of 2020 saw an increase of 109%, the highest upspring yet.
According to the data, people now shop online as much as they play with their kids. Astonishingly, they use shopping apps even more than they go outside for fun during the summer months. In fact, 85% of respondents have bought something online at least once during the past 12 months. Moreover, 22% of people plan to increase their use of online shopping apps during the upcoming year as well.
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Online Sales Are Set to Exceed Brick-and-Mortar Retail Sales in 2021
The future is still unclear. However, industry experts expect to see further growth of e-commerce, especially via shopping apps on mobile devices. According to the E-Commerce Times, mobile e-commerce sales are expected to account for 54% of all retail e-commerce sales in 2021.
What does this mean for you as the owner of a retail store, whether your store is virtual or physical? It means you’ll need to continually provide your customers with a unique shopping experience.
To stay ahead of the competition, companies will have to pay exceptional attention to their online shopping experience and everything that follows. Importantly, 71% of survey respondents say that purchases they’ve made have come about the result of their experience of a brand or service. In fact, customers’ perceptions of a particular brand influence their purchasing decisions almost as much as does their online research.
Most Online Merchants Expect More Growth
Despite current challenges, the HelpCenter’s latest survey finds that more than 80% of Shopify merchants expect their sales to continue growing in 2021. Naturally, this boom in sales will be accompanied by even greater use of shopping apps.
As the HelpCenter app’s co-founder Ernestas Petkevicius commented recently, “We have no doubt that we will see the boom of e-commerce in 2021. The competition in prices will be on the side of juggernauts like Amazon. But smaller companies can still work out a better customer experience with the right kind of tools and attitude and keep growing their businesses.”
In other words, make smart use of a shopping app for your online store. Then, your small business, too, can be a part of the further expansion of online sales.
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