? Online shoppers haven’t yet outdone the people who prefer physical stores.
? UPI is the most preferred payment method.
? Shoppers say that they’d shop from a sale even if they had to wait for it.
The recent years have changed the entire shopping scene by shifting it to the internet. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that people in all different age groups have found their own style in adapting to online shopping. So how is it all happening? Is there a pattern to it? Where do people shop, when do they do it and what do they shop for the most? GrabOn’s study might have the answers. The coupons and deals company, GrabOn, conducted a study with a sample group in order to dig deeper into people’s preferences about online shopping. Here are the 10 most important highlights from the survey.
Convenience is the king:
- Most people shop during sales: Although the means of shopping has changed, the concept remains the same. People still do love sales. That makes the Sale periods the most preferred to shoppers to buy new things. Almost 35% of shoppers prefer to shop for new items during Sale periods. However, the number is just slightly above the segment of people who said they would shop during festivals, which has also been the favorite time for shoppers since years.
- Online Vs offline: Albeit the convenience that online shopping brings, the number of online shoppers does not outdo the store shoppers. 51% of people prefer to buy things in stores leaving a slightly smaller chunk shoppers who prefer the online way.
- Online payment is the new COD: COD has been used as the payment mode merely because it lets you see what you’ve bought before you pay for it. This had created a skeptism amongst people to use online payment methods. Another risk that was associated with it was the parcel getting lost before it gets to you. But now the habit has flipped and more people almost everyone we spoke to had to say that online payments was the way to go for them. Moreover, it is only wise considering the pandemic and the spread of the virus.
- Payment methods: Thanks to the ease of making payments through UPIs, they are the most used online payment mode. Almost all e-commerce companies accept the payment method. UPI payments take less time as they get completed in minimal steps. That being said, credit and debit cards take the second position in preferences for online payments. Users can also save a bank card on the shopping website they use often so they don’t need to punch in the details every time. That clearly makes it a wide choice.
Howeve, the least one in use is netbanking. This mode needs users to log in to their banking accounts. This might make them need to switch between a bunch of apps and windows making the whole payment process cumbersome. - Try and Buy: The majority of the people say that they’d like to try a product before they they buy; or they find it as a good idea.
- The most shopped for items:
? Clothes are the highest shopped for items online (55%). This is followed by groceries which makes almost 20% of all categories.
? Grocery shopping increased exponentially during the pandemic which was still a growing segment until a few years ago.
? Mobiles and gadgets are the third-largest category bought online which has a share of 7%. - Impact of ‘Sales’: Although sales are a time when most people do their shopping, it is also as impactful as making people wait until sale periods. This is because most shoppers wishlist their favourite items and decide to buy them off later. Sales give users high discounts on many, if not all, of their offerings. Also, many e-commerce giants cover all categories under sales throughout the year taking care of almost everything a customer would want to buy.
- Wishlists: Talking about wishlists, most shoppers have up to 5 items on their wishlist at any given time.
- Order value: Most orders are placed under the range of Rs 2500 (52%), followed by an order value of between Rs 2500 and Rs 5000 (36%).
- Browsing times: Evenings are the most favourite time for shoppers to be online on shopping apps and check out the products. This is followed by the nighttime when most users are about to call off a day. Checking out new products during this time is a great way to call it off for a shopping lover. Also, it compromises the missed shopping adventure during the daytime. Thanks to busy schedules?
- Shopping device: Most people use mobiles for shopping online, with a very small percentage using a PC to shop on.
- Popular categories in the lockdown: Groceries has hands down been the most ordered commodity during the lockdown. The need for all other items went down with a huge margin. This was probably the time that lead to a boost in grocery online ordering which had been around for a while.
- Most used online shopping apps: Amazon has been the most preferred app of users for their online shopping needs. This marketplace sells everything from clothing, to groceries, and beauty products and whatnot. There’s is hardly anything product that can’t be found here. The second-largest used app is Myntra which dictates dominance over the fashion industry for online shopping, only followed by a very slight margin by Swiggy, putting the ball in the category of food.