Nearly Half of Consumers Use Smartphones as They Shop in Stores

We’re getting out and about more than ever.

As detailed in the “2023 Global Digital Shopping Index,” a PYMNTS and Cybersource collaboration, commerce is becoming increasingly omnichannel, and consumers are looking for an improved shopping experience.

The report is global in scope, to put it mildly. The research examines the behaviors of 13,349 consumers and 3,124 merchants across Brazil, India, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.

As this is the third iteration of the study, a few things have changed, but some things haven’t. Many economies have reopened, and against that backdrop, consumers are shifting from purely digital channels to transact and are moving back to in-store visits. In many cases, they’re opting for a hybrid model of commerce, buying and browsing online (or in stores) as they find items in the aisles. Or they are buying online and picking up at the curb.

Overall, 87% of consumers in these countries got out of the house to shop last year. But the great digital shift has been firmly entrenched, as those same consumers have been using digital payment methods when transacting face to face. Forty-six percent of global in-store shoppers used smartphones to enhance their most recent in-store shopping journey.

Payments Choice Matters

By and large, consumers choose which merchants to shop with based on whether they offer their most preferred payment methods. That consideration is among the most critical, and merchants must sit up and take notice. Payment choice ranks first of 34 features in terms of importance in every country for the third year in a row.

For the merchants seeking to tap into new markets, and to gain favor of consumers’ mind and wallet share, they must embrace overarching payment trends — and market-by-market, specific payment rails and methods. Depending on where you look, the payment preferences vary widely. In Brazil, for example, credit cards hold sway among a majority of the population, while that preference dips to less than a third of consumers in other countries. Debit card use is in the mid-single digits in Brazil, but debit transactions are more popular in other nations.

There’s room for providers and companies to bring digital payment methods, data sharing and promotions more fully into the fold. The most recent data shows that there’s a significant “gap” between consumers who use various digital features in stores to enhance their customer journeys and those who do not. This spells opportunity for forward-thinking firms to capture more sales.