Where Are People Buying Stuff Online?

THIS JUST IN: EVERYONE SHOPS ON THEIR PHONES

For many businesses, the next 6-8 weeks will make or break their entire year of sales. So, there may be no better time to check in on the current state of shopping and ask the question: How exactly are people shopping this year, and has it changed from previous years?

To answer that question, we gathered data from a variety of different sources to break it down into three parts:

Which devices are they using to shop?

We’ve known for a long time that the internet is going mobile, but this year smartphones are dominating. Phones account for 74% of traffic to retailers’ websites, and 63% of orders. Tablets are just 2% of each, with the reminder made up by desktop/laptop computers.

Gone are the days when it was a good idea to make sure that our websites are “mobile-friendly.” Given that two-thirds of orders happen on smartphones, we should be building our sites for phones first, then ensuring that they can scale up to also work on desktops.

Where are they’re checking out?

When I first started digging into this question I assumed that, of course, the majority of purchases happened on businesses’ websites, and there would likely be a handful of apps and other shopping aggregators to pay attention to. I was wrong.

Last year, half of all online sales checked out on an app, and this year that number is projected to be much higher. And some of those apps may come as a surprise. Here’s the top 5 by volume according to Business of Apps:

1. Amazon
2. eBay
3. Etsy
4. Wayfair
5. Shoppee

The aggressive growth in app-based shopping is fuelled by a new generation of competitors. Here are the 10 most-downloaded retail apps this year, also according to Business of Apps:

1. Shein
2. Amazon
3. Meesho
4. Shoppee
5. Temu
6. Flipkart
7. Shopsy
8. Alibaba
9. Ali Express
10. Lazada

Where are they getting their information?

This is the big question that marketers are struggling with this year (and pretty much every other year). We used to rely on TV commercials and catalogues for product education. Then it was online reviews, then YouTube.

We all know that the answer is going to be a spectrum of sources given that, today, people have a nearly unlimited array of information available to them; However, we did find a few sources of insight that should be factored into your marketing plan.

Young people are shopping earlier than ever, and those purchases are being sparked by content they are seeing on TikTok and Instagram. 48% of people 18-29 said that they’ll do at least some of their holiday shopping on social media, meaning that not only are they being advertised to, but they are actively using social channels to seek out shopping opportunities.

It’s not just Gen Z who rely on social content for their purchase decisions. According to the Digital Marketing Institute, 49% of shoppers of all ages reported that an influencer’s recommendation had influenced their purchase.

Remember that we humans hate to admit that anyone or anything pushed us to make a decision, so when 49% people admit to being influenced, you know that the real number is likely much larger.

What about the BFCM backlash – isn’t it over?

There may be some boycotts and well-publicized anti-consumerism movements around BFCM in recent years, but according a study published in the Washington Post, 93% of the biggest spenders — millennials aged 24-35 — plan to shop during that weekend, averaging $419.52 per person.

Add in the fact that, in the face of steady inflation, people are more price conscious than they have been in recent memory, it’s safe to predict that discounts are going to inform a lot of shopping behaviour this year.

ARGUMENT IN THE COMMENTS SECTION?

SETTLE IT WITH A POLL

For years, the knock against Meta was that they didn’t have anything original to offer. Feature releases were few and far between, and when they did come, they were almost always a ripoff of an innovation that Snapchat, or some other startup, had developed.

In the second half of this year, feature releases from Meta have been coming at us like a firehose. They may not be changing the world, but there are a lot of clever ideas emerging.

This one could change comments sections everywhere: We’re going to be able post polls as comments, which will create fascinating opportunities to settle debates and engage audiences.

It seems like there’s plenty more updates where this one came from, so keep your eyes glued to The Brief – we’ll keep you in the loop as they continue to roll out.

Read more about the Polls feature

THREADS KEEP GETTING MORE INTERESTING

INTRODUCING POLLS & GIFS

Last week we shared that the death of Threads may have been greatly exaggerated, and that it was starting to step into its role as the more interesting, less toxic version of whatever Twitter has become.

This week Meta applied some of its feature-releasing energy to the Threads app, which it so desperately needs. It’s clear that the app was originally released as a stripped-down version of what it could become, and the updates are now continuing to roll in – The latest two being in-feed polls and GIFs.

Until now the app didn’t have either of those somewhat-table-stakes features, but they’re catching up. And fittingly, the announcement came from Zuckerberg’s own Threads account, along with a fairly obvious, but appropriate, GIF of his own.

BLOG POSTS ARE (STILL) THE BEST WAY TO GET FOUND

SEO STUDY REMINDS US THAT BLOGGING WORKS

It’s easy to write off blogging as an old school digital marketing practice, largely because if its terrible name, but the SEO experts at Search Engine Land reminded us this week that blog posts make up the majority of the most valuable search results.

That very idea runs counter to how most of us think about our websites, with the homepage taking up most of our attention, but perhaps we should be investing a bit more in our blogging strategy, because the websites that do are picking up some of the most valuable real estate on the internet.

A FEW MORE STORIES WORTH A CLICK

STUFF THAT WILL MAKE YOU JUST A BIT SMARTER THIS WEEK

• Linkedin hits a Billion users, and adds AI summary tools
• Reddit shares a downloadable infographic of all of the moments to plan for in 2024
• TikTok published a free resource: “Fundamentals for Small Business: The E-Commerce Starter Guide”

Written by Conner Galway, Junction Consulting