Shopify: E-commerce Landscape Report

Shopify Inc. has released its first global State of Commerce report*, providing insights into DTC (direct-to-consumer) commerce and the drivers of purchasing behavior. The retail industry has experienced tremendous disruption over the past year, and both customers and merchants have found new opportunities to buy and sell goods in this changing retail market.

“Our mission is to make commerce better for everyone, and we created this report to share global insights to help merchants better understand what their customers want,” said Harley Finkelstein, COO of Shopify. “At Shopify, we’re committed to empowering independent business owners with the tools and insights they need to succeed and power their next wave of growth. We’ll continue to share more reports like this as Shopify becomes the go-to place to build businesses and power global commerce.”

In its new State of Commerce report, Shopify revealed several key findings, including:

It’s a battle for brand loyalty, but the winner will win more repeat business: more than 62 million consumers worldwide have shopped at the same Shopify store twice, and consumers shop at the same store an average of 3.8 times.

Shoppers love a good excuse to buy, especially the holidays, but sales slipped in February: November is the world's most popular shopping month, while February is the slowest month for transactions, and January is the month with the fastest year-over-year sales growth outside of the holiday season.

Americans shop most frequently, Germans shop the fastest, and Japanese shoppers spend the most: U.S. consumers shop almost twice as many items (6) as consumers in other countries (2-3); German consumers take the shortest time to make online shopping decisions, completing their purchases in less than 18 minutes; and Japanese consumers pay the most per transaction, averaging about $142, while U.S. consumers pay about $81.

Mobile, tablet or desktop? Region influences consumer purchasing behavior: Brazilian consumers prefer mobile phones to desktop computers, while consumers in Denmark, Ireland, Malaysia, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam prefer to shop on tablet devices rather than mobile phones. Consumers in the United States, Australia, Canada, China and the United Kingdom use tablets, desktops and mobile phones to shop at the same rate.

Social media helps with promotion, but it is not the channel most used by shoppers: online stores account for more than 80% of sales, followed by point-of-sale (POS) systems.

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