Many traditional consumer businesses and new start-ups alike are moving away from models that are shop-centric or geographically-focused, to ones that are customer-centric and virtually borderless.
To help inform companies tackling this transformation, a recent survey of 18,430 consumers provides a unique, comprehensive index of consumer online shopping behaviors and sentiments across countries, products and generations.
Here are some key insights:
Ecommerce is a rising trend: Online purchase frequency varies considerably by geography. Consumers in Asia, North America and Western Europe are most likely to shop online, while per capita online purchases in Eastern Europe and Russia, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa are less frequent.
Generation X consumers are the most active online shoppers: Among the different age groups, Generation X consumers (born between 1966 and 1981) made more online purchases last year than any other age group, averaging nearly 19 transactions per online shopper per year.
Don’t underestimate the Baby Boomers: Compared to the digital-first Millennial generation, it is reasonable to presume that Baby Boomers (born between 1965 and 1946) are less inclined to shop online. However, the Baby Boomers surveyed in fact shopped online just as frequently as the Millennials.
Men spend more online than women: In fact, men might enjoy shopping just as much as women or maybe even more! While men and women shopped with about equal frequencies, on average, the men spent more per transaction – men spent US$220 vs. US$151 for women on their most recent purchase.