Cashing in on E-Commerce: What We Learned From the Holiday Shopping Season

Globally, e-commerce is on the rise as consumers can purchase goods from anywhere in the world with the click of a button. The days of waiting in long lines on Black Friday are over. And consumers can still receive many of the same, and sometimes better, deals as those who venture to brick-and-mortar store locations. Retailers seeking to take advantage of growing patterns of global online shopping will make the experience more convenient and frictionless for digital storefront consumers, and it all comes down to the way they prefer to pay.

Consumers Are Surfing Retail Aisles … Online

This year’s holiday season was the busiest we’ve encountered, yet the scene was different inside stores. Black Friday foot traffic across the U.S. was down 6.2 percent in 2019, but sales prevailed. According to the National Retail Federation, Black Friday topped Cyber Monday as the busiest day for U.S. online shopping at 93.2 million shoppers compared with 83.3 million. Small Business Saturday followed at 58.2 million, Thanksgiving Day at 49.7 million, and the Sunday after Thanksgiving Day at 43.1 million.

With deals starting earlier and being available both online and in-store, there's less incentive for consumers to physically purchase items in-store during the peak weekend. With the click of a button, they can receive an easier checkout experience as opposed to waiting in long store lines. Desktops were responsible for $48.4 billion of U.S. online sales over the holiday season, smartphones for $39 billion, and tablets for $4.1 billion. Success in e-commerce is driven by consumer preferences, and the merchants that offered mobile-friendly payment experiences saw this firsthand during the holiday season.

Online Spending is at an All-Time High

The 2019 Thanksgiving Weekend saw nearly 190 million shoppers spend an average of $361.90, both online and in-store. Furthermore, Cyber Monday saw $9.4 billion in sales in the U.S., while Black Friday racked up $7.5 billion, both shattering previous records, according to Adobe.

These record-breaking figures prove that online shopping has become ingrained into consumers’ lifestyles. It's no longer a matter of getting shoppers through the doors of your store, but rather to entice them to click "Buy" online. This comes down to offering a seamless checkout experience, something that differs drastically for consumers of different ages, backgrounds and locations. Fifty-nine percent of shoppers will abandon an online transaction if their preferred payment method is unavailable; therefore, personalization is a must in the payments process.

The Global Opportunity

The uptick in global e-commerce isn't just limited to the United States. This past November’s Singles’ Day in China generated $38.4 billion in sales, up around $8 billion from 2018. $1 billion was sold online in the first 68 seconds, and $10 billion in the first half-hour. Sales on Singles’ Day, now officially called the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, dwarfed Cyber Monday and Black Friday combined, proving the global e-commerce sales opportunity.

However, in order for merchants to tap into this billion-dollar opportunity, they need to be able to reach consumers across the globe. From Asia-Pacific to Europe, the best way to achieve this is by offering consumers their preferred payment method.

From PPRO research, e-commerce makes up 23.7 percent of China’s total retail sales, and 59 percent of their e-commerce transactions are completed on a mobile device. Offering credit card payments will not be nearly as impactful as mobile e-wallets like Alipay and WeChat Pay for Chinese consumers. Crossing over to Western Europe, almost 20 percent of the U.K.’s total retail sales are e-commerce, and 55 percent of those purchases are completed on a mobile device. Journeying across Eastern Europe, countries like Romania see a little over 42 percent of e-commerce purchases on mobile.

Global e-commerce sales are on the rise as consumers are spending less time in-store and more time on their phones, tablets and desktops. Merchants should take these consumer preferences into account when planning their sales strategy. Today, only 37 percent of U.S. merchants sell cross-border, leaving a major growth opportunity. Knowing your audience and adapting to their needs will help drive sales and increase revenue. The potential to tap into new markets and expand customer bases is there; it's up to merchants to tap into cross-border e-commerce opportunities.

Steve Villegas is vice president of payment partnerships, North America at PPRO Group, a cross-border e-payment specialist.