Global: Consumers still prefer to buy groceries in-person rather than online
Online commerce, already growing for decades, surged during the COVID-19 crisis. As pandemic-related closures end, many brick-and-mortar stores have returned to business as usual. But are consumers ready to revert to old habits?
A recent survey from YouGov Realtime Omnibus asked global consumers what types of products they prefer to buy in physical establishments rather than online.
For most products, only a minority of consumers prefer to buy in-person. Groceries are a notable exception, with 60% of consumers preferring to buy them in-store. This may be because many food items are not standardized and benefit from seeing and comparing in-person.
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When we dig deeper into the data, there are significant differences by age. Generally speaking, older consumers are more likely to prefer shopping in-person. Of consumers in the 55+ range, 73% say they prefer buying groceries from a physical establishment. In the 18-24 age range, only 49% express this preference.
There are also large differences across markets. Canadians and Americans evince the broadest preference for in-store grocery shopping at 72%, followed by Italians and Germans at 71%. Asian markets surveyed (except Australia) came in below average on this metric. The Chinese market has the lowest preference for in-person grocery shopping at 37% with the next-lowest being Indonesia at 45%.
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Methodology: YouGov RealTime Omnibus provides quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18 and over in 18 markets with sample sizes varying between 514 and 2000 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in July 2022. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov RealTime Omnibus.
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