Nielsen: Most consumers shop across channels

Omnichannel consumption among U.S. consumers increased by 50% during 2020.

According to the new Nielsen Omnichannel Shopping Fundamentals Report, nearly half of all U.S. consumer goods purchases in 2020 were completed via the e-commerce landscape.

Nielsen Connect released new data revealing that U.S. omnichannel consumption increased by 50% over the course of 2020. Within the U.S., both food and non-food products have seen significant and notable shifts in omnichannel shopping since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. 

The number of shoppers who consider themselves to heavily or exclusively shop online for everyday items grew by 133% between September 2019 and September 2020. In addition, consumer preference for in-store pick-up grew by 26% during the 52 weeks ended September 2020.

Non-food categories like pet supplies, vitamins and facial skincare are performing exceedingly well in e-commerce. According to Nielsen data, 85% of pet supplies shoppers, 79% of vitamin shoppers and 78% of facial skin care shoppers purchased the corresponding categories online to a certain extent. In addition, 29% of consumers found the order history tool to be the most helpful feature when shopping online for non-food items.  
 
Examining omnichannel behavior by racial group, Nielsen finds the number of Hispanics, African-Americans, and Asian-Americans who used online and offline fulfillment methods in tandem with one another increased dramatically during the pandemic. However, omnichannel adoption grew the most among Hispanic shoppers (+54%), followed by African-Americans (43%) and Asian-Americans (31%).

“Within the U.S., new behaviors have emerged that retailers and manufacturers must acknowledge, accommodate and swiftly act on--especially as online shopping habits begin to solidify,” said Nikhil Sharma, Nielsen VP of North America consumer analytics. “While we do expect a return of some kind to pre-pandemic habits, consumers will not be returning to a pre-pandemic retail environment. Undeniably, consumers have more choices than ever in their path to purchase, meaning, as consumer needs and preferences continue to evolve, it is crucial to have an omnichannel strategy in place to sustain and grow momentum in 2021.”

Nielsen’s Omnichannel Fundamentals Survey was fielded in September 2019 (pre-pandemic), April 2020 (lockdown) and September 2020 (new normal). Nearly 25,000 surveys were fielded per wave in Nielsen's nationally representative “Homescan” panel. Insights on over 150,000 “category transactions” per wave were collected for this survey.
 

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