Happy Holidays, Amazon! Majority of U.S. Shoppers Set to Shop There
Those out there planning to do Holiday shopping online this year are far from alone, and for good reason.
No need to find a parking space, fight traffic, or endure the sometimes-fiendish weather that comes with this time of year is a combination that gets a lot of people interested. Word from a combined Reuters / Ipsos poll, meanwhile, says that online shopping will be done at a variety of places, but most will be putting Amazon’s address in their Web browsers at some point.
The poll in question found that two percent of shoppers were planning to hit Macy’s for online shopping, while three percent were making Target their target. Walmart had a healthy showing at 16 percent, but not even the three together could hope to match Amazon, which held a simple majority at 51 percent.
Though just over one in four planned to hit a retailer not connected to the poll, this illustrates a major problem for brick-and-mortar: the jump to online retailing isn’t always taken well. There are some bright spots—Target noted that its digital sales had grown 20 percent in the last quarter—but even the bright spots fall short as Target further noted that it expected 30 percent gain.
It cited an overall weakness in demand for electronics, but it wasn’t alone. Even Walmart missed its target by several percent, turning in 10 percent growth when the target was mid-to-high teens.
It’s easy to forget those early days of mobile shopping, when eBay got together with bliss spa to offer up a complete Black Friday pampering day while still allowing users to shop via mobile devices, complete with special deals. From beginnings that simple came the impressive landscape we know today, and we’re already starting to see the value of a head start.
Amazon has become one of the biggest names around in online shopping, and anything that goes readily from online to mobile has something of a first-mover advantage in the field. While the major retailers are struggling to catch up—and seeing gains over previous years—the going is slow because users already go where they know about the service, and Amazon for many fills the bill.
I’ve personally been an Amazon Christmas shopper for some time now, and only seldom hit a brick-and-mortar store at all unless it’s for some specific reason. I stay out of the cold weather, out of the harsh crowds, and I save a few bucks in the process while finding things I could probably never find around here.
Online retailers, no matter whose banner they operate under, will have their work cut out for them as they strive to catch up to Amazon, who enjoys a considerable head start, as expressed by a whole lot of people who will do their shopping there.