Buyer PaymentsInsights: The Organic Move to Mobile

Mercator Advisory Group’s most recent consumer survey report, Buyer PaymentsInsights – The Organic Move to Mobile, from the its annual Buyer PaymentsInsights series, examines U.S. consumers’ current shopping habits and how they pay for goods and services in-store and online.

The report is based on an online panel survey administered to 3,000 U.S. adults between February 28 and March 10, 2020. The survey covered the buyer experience and included questions that explored where consumers shop, loyalty program membership, how they pay in different merchant verticals, small business patronage, shopping attitudes, and many more shopping related subjects. It is important to note, this survey was conducted before the COVID-19 virus negatively affected much of the American economy.

This year, we have seen an increasing reliance on mobile devices for shopping. For example, in 2018, 16% of shoppers at online-only retailers purchased items via their mobile device. That increased to 33% in 2020. Many travel related merchant verticals also saw meaningful increases in mobile buying year-over-year.

Regardless of the shopping channel (i.e., in-store or online), having the flexibility of payment choice is among the most important aspects of shopping, as is a seamless shopping experience.

This year, we asked shoppers about their attitudes towards shopping at small businesses. Only one-fifth (21%) of American consumers report that they actively look for small businesses when they shop, and the same proportion are willing to pay more at a small business.

“This report provides a detailed analysis of how consumers shop and their attitudes towards shopping that provide guidance to understanding why they behave the way they do. The shift from the computer to smartphone shopping is critical for any merchant who has an e-commerce presence,” stated the author of the report, Peter Reville, director of Primary Research Services at Mercator Advisory Group, which includes the North American PaymentsInsights series.

This report in slide form is 53 pages long.