Consumer behavior

More than half of online stores in Britain close their customer care after 5 pm. Additionally, 27 percent of the online stores in the country are only available during the daytime on Monday to Friday. “A missed opportunity”, says Jonathon Huggett, Business Development Manager at Salesupply UK.

Correct product information is important in online shopping, according to 94 percent of consumers. Compared to last year, this is an 11 percent growth. A lack of good product information even makes 53 precent of buyers want to shop elsewhere.

Most Europeans shop online every week or more, spending an average of over 340 euros a month. They mostly buy fashion, pay for bills or order food. One in three purchases is made crossborder. Ireland, Germany and Israel buy internationally the most, while France is the least likely to buy outside of the country.

Up to 65 percent of consumers with a disability have abandoned their cart due to poor accessibility of the online store. Often, websites do not meet basic accessibility needs, while up to 73 percent of consumers are touched by a disability.

Over half of online shoppers are prepared to wait longer for a parcel if it is from a sustainable shop. Still, only 1 in 5 customers are prepared to pay extra for eco-friendly delivery. Consumers are most worried about the environment when shopping for groceries and fashion.

Even though the population in the Netherlands continues aging, retailers are hardly profiting from it. On the contrary, it will cost Dutch sellers 2 percent in revenue by 2032. Therefore merchants should focus more on the elderly, researchers say.

Online furniture and home goods retailer Wayfair is laying off 870 employees. This reduction affects 5 percent of its global workforce and 10 percent of its corporate team. According to the company, its team is too big for the current economic environment.

Just months after expanding to Germany and Ireland, Canadian ecommerce investor Clearco is cutting 25 percent of its staff. This comes down to 125 employees. The company points to ‘the current macroeconomic environment’.

Shopify is laying off 10 percent of its staff. This comes down to a thousand employees. According to the company, it is due to a decline in customer demand after peak growth during the pandemic.

Dutch shoppers expect to buy more online in the next few years, in particular health, beauty and food products. For the first time, over half of consumers say they will buy more on their smartphone in 5 years.

Over 40 percent of online stores close customer care after 5 pm, according to surveys in Germany and the Netherlands. Almost half of German shops are not reachable at night. However, the evenings are a peak time for online shoppers.

The large amount of returns in ecommerce is a cause of worries for many online sellers. However, 71 percent of consumers say that online sellers don't offer any sizing tools, which could reduce returns.

Finnish consumers rate ecommerce the least eco-friendly industry compared to the rest of Northern Europe, while Danish customers are the most critical about sustainability. Moreover, Finn.no, Matsmart, Aarstiderne, Tori.fi and Bol.com are voted most sustainable online retailers.

Customer support was busier in 2021: ticket volumes increased for all channels compared to the year before. Consumers also have higher expectations of customer service.

Because of the pandemic, more and more consumers find their way to online stores. It's encouraged consumers to buy from retailers they'd never ordered from before, which has made cross-border shopping grow exponentially. Can retailers take advantage from this during the holidays?