Data Brief: 51 Pct Of US Consumers Expect ‘Value Me’ and ‘Make It Easy For Me’ Digital Shopping Features

The immediate past is prologue when discussing the great digital shift that began last year. PYMNTS’ Global Digital Shopping Index, U.S. Edition, a Cybersource collaboration — which is based on surveys of more than 2,170 U.S. consumers and 500 U.S. merchants — called the demographic trends and most-favored features in digital preference early, as seen in this excerpt.

As the Index states, “Baby boomers are just as likely as millennials to have online cross-channel shopping journeys, with each group representing approximately 28 percent of the category. Baby boomers and Generation X also stand out for their preference for online native shopping journeys, making up 35.6 percent and 38.9 percent of this group, respectively. Millennials do conform to assumptions in one respect: their preference for mobile shopping journeys. Millennials represent the largest shares of mobile-native and mobile cross-channel shoppers, at 47.7 percent and 39.3 percent, respectively.”

On the features front, the Global Digital Shopping Index, U.S. Edition found that the most popular functionality makes the shopping journey more efficient and rewarding, with such “value me” and “make it easy for me” features used by 51 percent of consumers, and just over 19 percent interested in doing so. Nearly 40 percent use such features or would like the opportunity.

Per the Index, “The top four features that have seen increased usage since the outbreak include buy online, pick up from a store employee — curbside pickup — with 34.2 percent of consumers using this option more. This is followed by verifying that a product is in stock (at 28 percent), mobile order-ahead (at 26.4 percent)” and contactless cards or digital wallets (20.4 percent).

Despite the certainty of demand for digital offerings, merchants and consumers don’t see completely eye-to-eye on features, including the basics — such as availability of them.

“Merchants are more likely than consumers across the board to report the availability of digital features, with some particularly notable gaps in the case of ‘protect me’ features like refunds and disputes — 20 percentage points separate merchants and consumers regarding the availability of these features,” according to the Index.

The Index explores how merchants are working to close the gap, noting that “consumers consider a broader range of specific features as important than do merchants, and that gap is particularly wide for key offerings like shipping, refunds and data protection. Our research found that 56.1 percent of consumers view free shipping for digital orders as an important feature — a number that is just 31.8 percent for merchants. The case is similar for data protection: 43.6 percent of consumers view this as important — close to twice the share of merchants who believe their customers have this view.”