Connected Customers Are Driving Retail’s Transformation

SAN FRANCISCO – With more options for shopping than ever before, consumers aren’t just replacing one method for another, they’re shopping everywhere. A new study from Adyen (AMS: ADYEN), the global payments platform of choice for many of the world’s leading companies, in partnership with 451 Research, reveals that the most important thing shoppers prioritize is convenience in North America.

As the lines between physical and digital shopping experiences continue to blur, consumers are asking more from retailers. In North America alone, 84% of retailers have seen a rise in consumer expectations. To avoid leaving significant revenue on the table, retailers must embrace a unified commerce strategy to create a cohesive shopping journey across sales channels.

“Unified commerce represents a $1.2 trillion opportunity,” said Kamran Zaki, president, Adyen North America. “To entice customers, especially at check out, the most intimate shopping moment, retailers must prioritize creating a seamless experience so customers can shop wherever, whenever, and with whichever payment method they want.”

Consumers are shopping everywhere and early adopters are making multi-channel purchases.

Of the more than 1,500 consumers surveyed across North America, respondents didn’t have an overwhelming preference to shop online or in-store and they’re shopping across multiple channels.

• 37% of consumers prefer to shop in a physical store, while 32% prefer online shopping for almost anything.

• 70% use online websites for shopping via personal computer at least somewhat frequently, the same number (70%) who use online websites via smartphone.

• 38% are using a smart speaker to shop at least somewhat frequently, and of those, 54% are making purchases.

• 36% are shopping via social networking sites to shop at least somewhat frequently, and of those, 50% are making purchases.

Consumers value convenience above everything.

Convenience would sway consumers to shop at one retailer over another, above any other category, if merchandise and price were the same. With the added convenience of cross-channel shopping, consumers are making additional purchases.

• 60% of consumers would choose the retailer that offered a convenient shopping experience across online and in-store.

• 30% would be swayed by fast and convenient payment options, 29% by no lines to ensure fast purchase in-store, and 27% by the ability to pay without having to interact with a sales assistant (avoid lines/self-service).

• 55% of consumers reported they have made a purchase as a direct result of a retailer offering a cross-channel buying option in the past six months.

If the experience isn’t seamless, they’ll walk away.

Negative shopping experiences cause $887 billion in abandoned sales annually. Consumers want to shop how, when and with the logistics (payment, shipping, return) methods they want.

• In the last six months, nearly nine in 10 consumers (86%) have abandoned an in-store purchase because their desired item was out of stock and six in 10 have abandoned due to a long line.

• One in two have abandoned an online purchase at the payment stage due to laborious payment forms that require manual data entry and 37% have abandoned an in-store purchase because they weren’t able to use their preferred payment method.

• Two in five (42%) have abandoned a purchase due to lack of cross-channel buying options (e.g., buy online and pick up in-store; ship-to-home) and 34% of consumers have abandoned a purchase after a credit/debit card was mistakenly declined on suspicion of fraud during a legitimate transaction.