Deloitte's 2016 annual consumer shopping survey has predicted that e-commerce will make huge gains this holiday season as consumers plan to spend more time shopping online and will spend as much virtual cash there as they would in-store.
The company forecast a 17–19% increase in e-commerce sales in the U.S., reaching $96–98 billion between November 2016 and January 2017.
Clothes are still the No. 1 gift item, whereas jewellery, food, liquor, and cosmetics continue a steady upward swing.
The majority of people still prefer to surf and click 'buy' on their PCs, but mobile purchases are on the rise as participants said they will spend at least 10% of their shopping time on mobile devices.
Shoppers feel that they have more disposable income in 2016, and 75% of respondents said that they felt their situation was the same or had improved from last year. Nearly half said that they felt the economy would improve in the next year.
Despite this rosier outlook, Christmas budgets stayed mostly consistent with other years, dropping slightly from $487 in 2015 to $426 in 2016.
Free and fast shipping was highlighted as the top things on consumers' wish lists, known as the 'Amazon Prime effect'.
In 2015, 63% of respondents thought three to four day shipping was speedy. In a year, that figure has dropped 20%; consumers have redefined fast shipping as two-day delivery, and want to pay less for it than last year.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday also haven't tempted more customers to finish their shopping early; 40% said they will still complete most of their purchases in December.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Karen Henderson. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
