The Poles topping the list of online shoppers in Europe

Deloitte asked consumers in 14 countries about the importance of online shopping in their this year’s holiday baskets. In the UK and Germany, presents are bought online by 48 percent and 46 percent of consumers, respectively. Such countries as Bulgaria, Belgium, Russia or Slovenia are on the other pole. For all the surveyed European countries the average is 37 percent, says Magdalena Jończak, Director, Consulting Department, Deloitte.

 

What are the other findings of the “Christmas Survey 2015”?

 

We look for gift ideas online in addition to comparing product prices and making purchases. The effect of digital channels on sales in the traditional ones is getting stronger every year.

 

Today, consumers entering a store are hunters, not gatherers – eight in ten have already interacted with a particular brand or product before getting into the store and they know what they are planning to buy. They come to buy things which they have already chosen and found information about on websites or in social media. They expect that the store will make it easier and more intuitive for them to do shopping online, says Justyna Skorupska, E-Commerce Leader, Deloitte Digital.

 

As far as searching for gifts is concerned, we use the network mainly to find electronics (53 percent) and video games (53 percent). In traditional stores, we still look for inspiration for food and beverages (45 percent). Similarly with price comparisons: six in ten respondents compare the prices of electronic equipment on the Internet. On the other hand, half of us prefer to check the prices of food in traditional stores. And where do we buy things? One half of the respondents choose online stores when purchasing electronics, video games and films. Traditional stores will be visited by 76 percent of respondents buying food and 66 percent purchasing cosmetics and health products.

 

Search engines (94 percent), price comparison websites (92 percent) and online store websites (92 percent) are the tools which are most frequently used when it comes to searching for products and comparing their prices.

 

Can it be concluded, then, that we visit traditional stores only to see the products which we want to buy for our beloved ones as Christmas presents and make the actual purchases online? As many as 55 percent of the surveyed Poles admit that they do so sometimes and 27 percent that this is often the case. For all the surveyed European countries the average is 51 and 20 percent, respectively.

 

The role of social media in the purchasing process is growing. 84 percent of the respondents declare that in addition to the communication function, social media are used for viewing products, 83 percent claim that such media are used for price checking purposes and 81 percent admit that they track the comments of other users.

 

Thanks to innovative technologies, we can buy products also with the use of mobile devices. It turns out that 38 percent of respondents from Poland have used their phone to make purchases and further 57 percent are planning to do so in the future. In Europe, the average of 41 percent of respondents have already done it and additional 47 percent of them are planning to do so in the future, says Olgierd Cygan, Partner managing the agency business of Deloitte Digital Central Europe. Poland is another country, in addition to Denmark and Russia, where m-commerce has seen a growth of more than 10 percent between 2014 and 2015. What is more, our experience shows that those who interact with a brand through digital channels buy and spend more. The conversion rate in their case is even 20 percent higher than for consumers who do not use digital channels when making purchases, he adds.

 

Retail networks are making every effort to attract the highest number of loyal customers. When a product which is searched for is not found on the store website, four in ten online customers go to a website of another store and 35 percent of them look for the product through search engines and price comparison websites. Consumers visiting traditional stores act slightly differently. Every third of them goes to the same network store or asks the shop assistance for advice, while every fourth looks for the product on the Internet website of that network and one in five goes to another store.

 

The respondents declare that last year 96 percent of products ordered online were delivered on time. Those who were disappointed with their suppliers in this regard last year still want to buy gifts online but they are planning to do that earlier (34 percent). However, 28 percent of them will not do shopping online this year.

 

According to Polish consumers, e-commerce guarantees the fullest access to opinions expressed by other buyers on individual products (54 percent), the possibility to compare prices and goods (56 percent), home delivery of purchased products (55 percent) as well as a lack of any limitations as regards the time of making purchases (53 percent). The most considerable advantages of traditional stores are access to the product immediately after its purchase (80 percent), the sellers’ competence and professional advice they provide (77 percent), personal data protection (76 percent), the possibility to exchange or return the products purchased (74 percent) and after-sales service (73 percent).

 

Deloitte