Study: Stores lose substantial sales to Amazon ‘showroomers’

Many consumers are visiting stores with the result of later buying products they browse on the Amazon e-commerce site.

According to new data from Numerator, roughly three-quarters of major retailers’ shoppers also shop at Amazon. This includes 76% of Walmart shoppers, 77% of Target shoppers, and 75% of Costco shoppers. And over half (53%) of Walmart shoppers made an Amazon purchase within a day of shopping in-store at Walmart, compared to 38% of both Target and Costco shoppers.

The top four categories for in-store sales “leaked” to Amazon - home & garden, electronics, health & beauty, and apparel - accounted for over half of all leaked dollars at each retailer. Home & garden products at Walmart had the highest percentage of leaked sales (18.5%) among all categories and retailers. 

Electronics leakage was highest at Costco (15.9% of leaked sales), followed by Walmart (14.9%) and Target (14.2%). Target was the only major retailer analyzed by Numerator to have grocery appear in the top five leaked categories (5.2% of leaked sales). 

Target has the largest opportunity to capture lost day-of sales to Amazon, according to Numerator data. By preventing leaked same-day trips to Amazon, Target has the potential to capture 10.3% in incremental sales, followed by Walmart (+7.2%) and Costco (+4.7%). 

In addition to purchase data analysis, Numerator issued a survey to verified Walmart and Target buyers who had followed their in-store purchase with an Amazon order to understand the motivations behind cross-shopping. Key survey data findings include:

• 30% of Walmart-to-Amazon shoppers said they made the Amazon purchase due to lack of product availability in-store, six points higher than reported by Target shoppers (24%).
• Nearly one-third of both Target and Walmart shoppers claimed “ease of delivery” as their reason for buying on Amazon – despite being in the brick-and-mortar store that same day.
• Lower prices were cited as the reason for shopping on Amazon by 22% of Walmart shoppers and 20% of Target shoppers. 
• Nearly one-quarter (24%) of Target shoppers said they bought on Amazon because they had already searched for the products on Amazon before going in-store, 7 points higher than Walmart shoppers who said the same (17%).
• When asked what Walmart or Target could do to capture more of a consumer’s purchases, nearly four in 10 consumers (39%) said Walmart should focus on product availability, 14 points higher than those who said the same for Target (25%). 

• Offering lower prices was recommended by 39% of Target shoppers and 36% of Walmart shoppers. 
• Improving the in-store experience represented the largest gap (21 points) between Walmart and Target shoppers, with nearly one in three Walmart shoppers (28%) making this request, compared to only 7% of Target shoppers.  

Percentage of Retailer's Leaked Sales to Amazon, by Category

[Read more: Amazon wins Black Friday for second consecutive year, reports Numerator]