Technology continues to work its way into the modern shopping experience. A new PYMNTS survey found roughly 40% of shoppers are “click-and-mortar” fans, either using their devices while shopping or ordering online and then picking up their purchases.
Some 14,000 consumers across seven countries were surveyed about their omnichannel buying behavior and preferences for the 2024 Global Digital Shopping Index.
The survey found 25% of those queried “are now digitally assisted in-store shoppers, opting to use connected technologies to improve their brick-and-mortar journeys. Another 14% are pickup shoppers, preferring to make their purchases digitally and collect them on-site.”
In the U.S., among the 2,400 Americans surveyed, 65% said they are more satisfied now that they’ve incorporated digital assistance.
Brick-and-mortar sales totaled $7 trillion in the same period and are expected to hit $8.34 trillion in 2026.
In 2023, click-and-mortar sales totaled $113.2 billion, up from $95.9 billion in 2022.
Projections for 2024 are at $132.76 billion, and annual growth through 2030 is projected to be 16.8% annually. Capital One Shopping found 85% of buy-online, pickup-in-store shoppers bought items in-store when they collected their orders.
“The results revealed that when it comes to online shopping, young and wealthy consumers lead the way,” the PYMNTS survey revealed. Twenty-one percent of consumers engage in online shopping each week, and that share rises to 27% for high-income shoppers and 35% for Generation Z.
Plus, one in four consumers shops from a digital marketplace each week, and that increases to 33% for wealthy consumers and 37% for Gen Z, PYMNTS noted.
In 2023, there were 274.7 million online buyers, with 93% of millennials always planning to buy on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to Yaguara.co, an aggregator of market data for e-commerce. Those online buyers spent more than $1.1 trillion, with 2024 projections for a $100 billion increase.
Why are consumers flocking to click-and-mortar? Capital One found 48% of consumers want to avoid shipping fees and 77% said they want to see an item before taking it home, with click-and-mortar being a timesaver.
Younger consumers also are more easily influenced by peers.
A PYMNTS study found 42% of Gen Z consumers, 39% of zillennials (the micro-cohort born between 1991 and 1999) and 37% of millennials said they had made purchases in the preceding month based on recommendations from friends or family. That compares to 30% for the population overall.
