The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is impacting every part of our lives, and with social distancing keeping people at home, there are noticeable shifts in behavioural trends. People are turning to social commerce websites, broadcast TV, and looking for new methods of entertainment, escapism, and exercise.
People are also changing how they spend their money, especially when it comes to ecommerce sales. A new Kantar study covering Europe’s three largest e-commerce markets — France, Germany, and the UK — shows that the share of consumers purchasing more than half of their shopping online has increased between 25 and 80 percent since the outbreak of Covid-19.
Better yet, six out of ten consumers say that they will continue to buy as much online today as they do after the pandemic has passed.
This is a huge opportunity for brands that can serve a robust digital offering to their customers during this time, and what’s even more interesting with this trend is how it pairs with the increased use of social commerce websites during lockdown. The line between social media and e-commerce is increasingly becoming blurred; social channels dominated by user-generated content have embraced the transactional side to become booming marketplaces.
Social commerce websites have been brilliant success stories in countries like China, where consumer-oriented innovations are developing at breakneck speed and mobile payment tools, like QR codes, facilitate quick and easy transactions, prompting consumers to make more purchases than before.
And, as with many Eastern trends, this move to social commerce websites is being picked up by younger Westerners first. With Gen Z set to represent 40% of consumer spending by the end of this year, they are the ones driving new shopping habits. Along with younger millennials they are determining what is trending and therefore what is driving demand. These younger audiences spend huge amounts of time on social apps so it is no surprise the popularity of social commerce websites is rapidly growing in this demographic.
Another driver of social commerce websites is the growth of short form content and sharing of this content across social media platforms, with social media influencers being great accelerators of this content across platforms. They’re helping further drive the growth of commerce sales across social media, and the influencer industry is on track to be worth up to $15 billion by 2022.
The use of social commerce websites is said to be one of this year’s marketing trends as more consumers rely on recommendations from their friends and other shoppers when making their purchasing decisions. But how do consumers across the world and in the UK use deal-sharing communities like HotUKDeals to do their shopping?
Pepper.com, a globally active social commerce group that HotUKDeals is part of, has analysed the data of its eleven platforms to find out which devices consumers use when shopping, when they are likely to make purchases, and what kind of products interest them the most. The study unveils national characteristics of British consumers and patterns they have in common with consumers from around the world.
Consumer electronics and fashion items are the most popular products
Retailers selling consumer electronics and fashion products benefit the most via social commerce websites. 23.13% of all 156.78 million products that were clicked out to or purchased via Pepper.com’s eleven platforms during the first six months of 2016 were electronic items such as smartphones, notebooks, TVs, and video game consoles. Second to this, 13.72% were fashion items and accessories. Home and furniture items ranked third with 11.18%, with entertainment products such as computer games, movies on Blu-ray Disc or DVD and music ranking fourth with 6.50%.
The purchasing behaviour of British consumers using social commerce websites differs slightly from these global figures.
More than every second consumer uses a mobile device to buy online
From a global perspective, mobile commerce isn’t just the future but already the current status of online shopping. 55.96% of all 114.28 million unique users that visited one of Pepper.com’s platforms in the first half of 2016 were using a mobile device with Brazilian (65.59%), Dutch (62.98%), British (61.43%), South-Korean (60.60%) and Mexican (58.18%) consumers most likely to use a smartphone or tablet when shopping online.
Other markets lag behind in development. While the USA is currently on average with 58.79%, continental European markets can be characterised by a comparatively small proportion of mobile shoppers. In Austria (49.19%), Germany (48.69%), and Poland (45.03%) less than every second consumer uses a mobile device for online shopping and France has the lowest proportion of mobile shoppers with 42.11%.
Android devices dominate the smartphone and tablet market
Android is by far the most used mobile operating system worldwide for those using social commerce websites for making purchases. No less than 66.48% of all 60.45 million consumers who visited one of Pepper.com’s social commerce platforms from January to June 2016 via a mobile device used an Android smartphone or tablet. The second most popular mobile operating system was Apple’s iOS with 29.93% of all visitors using an iPhone or iPad. Only 2.73% of all mobile devices were operated by Windows and just 0.26% used a BlackBerry.
In the UK, consumers prefer iOS devices for shopping online with 57.38% of the users of HotUKDeals opting to use Apple products in the first half of 2016. 39.36% of members used an Android device followed by Windows (2.77%) and BlackBerry (0.44%).
Consumers like to shop online on a Tuesday between 7pm and 9pm
Many consumers around the world like to shop online and make their purchases on a Tuesday. In seven of the eleven markets an average of 15.59% of all products clicked out to or purchased via one of Pepper.com’s social commerce websites were done so on a Tuesday. Monday was the strongest day in three markets with 15.76% and in Brazil Wednesday was the most popular shopping day with 16.86%. The weakest day is Sunday with only 12.87%.
Another pattern consumers from around the world have in common is the time of day when they are most likely to shop online. The early evening and especially the two hours between 7pm and 9pm is the time with the highest purchases or click outs to products with 6.18% of all consumers shopping between 7pm and 8pm and 6.19% between 8pm and 9pm. The second most popular time of day are the hours between 1pm and 3pm with 6.06% between 1pm and 2pm, and 6.03% between 2pm and 3pm, as consumers use their lunch-break to shop online.
The situation in the UK is the same in terms of the day most consumers are likely to shop online with 15.3% of members of HotUKDeals favouring Tuesdays to make their purchases, followed closely by Mondays ar 15.09%, and Fridays at 14.29%. Like the global trend, the majority, 13.03%, of purchases happen between 7pm and 9pm.