The Aussie consumer is shown to be something of an outlier when it comes to wanting to get back to the in-store experience, new research reveals.
Global payments platform Adyen surveyed more than 25,000 consumers, including more than 2,000 adults in Australia for its Adyen Agility Report. The findings show that Aussies have the strongest desire to shop in-store (72%), compared to 62% of Americans, and 50% of UK consumers.
And 63% of Australians say they’re looking forward to being able to shop in-store for pleasure, considerably more than the 55% global average.
Preferences aside, the pandemic has acted as a catalyst for a huge shift to online shopping, and it would appear that the online experience has won many Aussie converts.
Over a quarter of Australians said they had done more shopping online during the pandemic than before. This, however, is slightly less that in the US where the figure was 36%, and in the UK (33%).
Most tellingly, a third of Australians say they will shop more online in the future. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, this figure rises to 46% in the younger 18 to 34-year-old age group, falling away somewhat to 38% among those aged 35 to 54, with only 17% saying the same among those aged 55-plus. But even among even those who say they prefer in-store shopping, 28% say they will also shop more online.
One key insight to emerge from the research, reports B&T, is how unforgiving Aussies are of bad retail experiences, either in-store or online: 72% say they wouldn’t give a retailer a second chance if they had a bad experience.
On the other hand, 78% say they will stay loyal to the retailers they relied on during the pandemic, with 67% saying they prefer to support local shops because they want them to be able to stay open.
Separately, a study commissioned by cashback platform Cashrewards, which quizzed 1,256 people, further underlines the migration to online shopping in the country, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Before the pandemic, 22% said they shopped regularly online; now that figure is 33%. And 57% of consumers were trying to stay out of brick and mortar stores because of fears over the virus.
Of those who shop online, 54% said they had done so from their bed during the pandemic, with 28% admitting they had shopped from the toilet, slightly more than the one in four who said they’d ordered products online from the pub.
Sourced from B&T, Sydney Morning Herald; additional content by WARC staff
